A Survey of Impact of Oral Health on Quality of Life and its Determinants among Healthcare Workers in a Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the OHRQoL of healthcare workers in a teaching hospital in northeastern Nigeria and how it is influenced by sociodemographic factors and dental clinic visits. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed among doctors and nurses in the teaching hospital using the English version of the short form of the oral health impact profile questionnaire (OHIP-14) to obtain information on their perception of their oral health. Results: The mean overall OHIP-14 score (4.30 ± 0.29(SEM)), and the prevalence of impact (13.2%) were relatively low. The highest domain scores were recorded in the psychological discomfort (1.16 ± 0.07(SEM)) and physical pain (1.06 ± 0.07(SEM)) domains. Significantly higher OHIP-14 scores were seen with those who had visited the dental clinic (p = 0.01) and for visits due to emergency reasons (p = 0.00), with no significant differences in the impact for age, gender and profession. Multiple regression model variables statistically significantly (p < 0.005) predicted about 16.9% of the variations in the OHIP-14 scores. Conclusions: Oral disorders did have an impact on the quality of life of the healthcare workers. Being female, younger in age, previous visit to the dentist and visits due to emergency reasons were associated with poorer OHRQoL.