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Quality of life and psychological well‐being among endodontic patients: a case‐control study
Author(s) -
Liu P,
McGrath C,
Cheung GSP
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
australian dental journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.701
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1834-7819
pISSN - 0045-0421
DOI - 10.1111/j.1834-7819.2012.01722.x
Subject(s) - quality of life (healthcare) , oral health , medicine , psychological distress , dentistry , distress , general health questionnaire , clinical psychology , mental health , psychiatry , nursing
Background: Much is already known about the consequences of endodontic disease from clinicians’ perspectives; a significant omission is an understanding from patients’ perspectives. This study aimed to determine oral health‐related quality of life (OHQoL) and psychological distress among subjects referred for endodontic care compared to patients in periodontal maintenance. Methods: This was a case‐control study involving 200 patients; 100 patients requiring endodontic treatment and 100 control subjects (periodontal maintenance patients). OHQoL was assessed using the short form Oral Health Impact Profile measure (OHIP‐14) and psychological well‐being using the short form of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ‐12). Variations in OHIP‐14 and GHQ‐12 scores between the ‘case’ and ‘control’ group were determined, and the magnitude of such differences through effect size (ES) calculations. Results: There were significant differences in OHIP‐14 summary scores between the case and control groups (p < 0.001) and significant differences across all seven domain scores (p < 0.05). The ES was moderate (0.63) with respect to summary OHIP‐14 scores. There were also significant differences in GHQ‐12 scores between the case and control groups (p < 0.05), but the ES was small (0.36). Conclusions: OHQoL and psychological well‐being is compromised among patients seeking endodontic treatment, and to a greater magnitude than patients in periodontal maintenance.