Assessment of oral health related quality of life (OHRQL) in patients with periodontitis: A cross sectional survey

Health related quality of life is attaining more attention and is considered as an important marker of patients’ perception of disease. The impact of oral diseases on the oral health related quality of life (OHRQL) is of immense importance, but very few studies exist on the impact of periodontitis on quality of life. : This study was aimed to find out the relationship between periodontitis and OHRQL. A cross sectional survey was conducted at the outpatient Department of Periodontics, Government Dental College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala among 158 patients presented with periodontitis who satisfied the inclusion criteria. Data collection was done by using a proforma for recording age, gender and socioeconomic status. Clinical periodontal parameters such as clinical attachment loss (CAL), probing pocket depth (PPD), simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S), gingival index (GI) using UNC 15 probe were examined. OHRQL was assessed using the Malayalam version of OHIP-14. Descriptive statistics were used to describe quantitative and qualitative variables. Association between periodontitis and OHRQL was analysed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Severity of periodontitis and OHRQL and each domains of quality of life and was determined using Kruskal-Wallis test. There is statistically significant association of OHRQL with CAL (r=0.16; p= 0.04). Other periodontal parameters (PPD, OHIS and GI) depicted a very weak positive correlation with OHRQL but none was statistically significant (r=0.15, p=0.07; r=0.13, p=0.10 and r=0.14, p=0.08 respectively). There is no statistically significant association between severity of periodontitis and OHRQL (p=0.24). The maximum affected domains are physical pain, psychologic discomfort and physical disability among the seven domains. Periodontitis have a definite impact on the OHRQL of this selected population. The perception of OHRQL can vary with difference in cultural background and between individuals. Further long term studies with a larger sample size and comparison with a healthy periodontium is necessary to validate the results.