title: Association of gingivitis with child oral health-related quality of life.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Child oral health-related quality of life (COHRQoL) has been increasingly assessed. However, the full relationship between gingivitis and COHRQoL has been assessed by only a small number of studies. This study aims to assess the association between gingival bleeding and how a child perceives its OHRQoL.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study used multistage random sampling to enroll 1,134 12-year-old schoolchildren from Santa Maria, a southern city in Brazil. Participants were examined for gingival bleeding according to the community periodontal index criteria, a full-mouth clinical examination of six sites per tooth. COHRQoL was assessed by the Brazilian version of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire for 11- to 14-Year-Old Children (CPQ11-14), and data on socioeconomic status were collected. Multilevel Poisson regression models fitted the association of gingivitis with overall and domain-specific CPQ11-14 scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In general, children with bleeding in ≥15% of sites had higher total CPQ11-14 scores and domain-specific scores than their counterparts. This association persisted after adjustment for other potential confounders. The presence and extent of gingival bleeding was associated mainly with emotional limitation domains of the CPQ11-14; those with extended levels of gingivitis had a 1.20 times higher mean score than those with low-level/no gingival bleeding (rate ratio = 1.20; 95% confidence interval = 1.10 to 1.31).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present results indicate that the presence of extensive levels of gingivitis might be negatively associated with how children perceive their oral health and their daily life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, Faculty of Dentistry, Federal University of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernanda
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tomazoni
authors.forename: Fabricio B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Zanatta
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tuchtenhagen
authors.forename: Guilherme N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: da Rosa
authors.forename: Joana P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Del Fabro
authors.forename: Thiago M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Ardenghi
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D000067576:Child Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000523:psychology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005884:Gingival Hemorrhage / Q000523:psychology; D005891:Gingivitis / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D008310:Malocclusion / Q000523:psychology; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education; D009909:Oral Health; D010512:Periodontal Index; D011788:Quality of Life; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class; D018677:Tooth Injuries / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Child; epidemiology; gingivitis; oral health; periodontal diseases; quality of life.