ASSESSMENT OF ORAL HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG VISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDREN VISITING A TERTIARY EYE HOSPITAL IN RAWALPINDI CITY

Abstract

Background: There have been very few quality-of-life studies done on Oral health related Quality of life in developing countries like Pakistan and even less so in Rawalpindi, Punjab. The aim of current study was to determine the OHRQoL among visually impaired children and to determine its association with the some of the socio-demographic characteristic in a tertiary eye care hospital, Rawalpindi to improve the OHRQoL of such patients. Methodology: It was a cross sectional study done for a period of six months at a tertiary eye care hospital in Rawalpindi using a sample size of 384. Data collection was done after informed consent. Structured questionnaires using C-OIDP and clinical examination were done by trained persons, demographic data was collected in section A of the questionnaire. SPSS v26 was used for data cleaning and data analysis. Results: Out of 384 participants, 280(72.9%) had reported with dental caries with a mean DMFT of 1.64 and mean deft of 1.53. Results showed that 266(69.2%) visually impaired children had traumatic dental injuries was 50.6% among these visually impaired children. The study sample showed the highest scores of Angle’s Class I molar relation 188(49%). Crowding (42.7%) was most commonly seen dentofacial anomaly in the study group The OHRQoL of life was reduced across all domains. Oral health related Quality of life was reduced and a significant association was found between demographic characteristics and OHRQoL. iv Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of dental diseases in this group and higher C-OIDP scores suggestive of unfavorable OHRQoL. Along with everyday movements and activities such patients also face social challenges because of their disease. Therefore, routine Dental checkups of Visually Impaired Children and timely referral to dentist is essential and can improve their outcome as well as their Oral health related quality of life. Keywords: OHRQoL, C-OOIDP, Visual Impairment.