Abstract:
Background: Generic and condition-specific (CS) oral-health-related quality-of-life (OHRQoL) instruments assess the
impacts of general oral conditions and specific oral diseases. Focusing schoolchildren from Arusha and Dar es
Salaam, in Tanzania, this study compared the discriminative ability of the generic Child OIDP with respect to dental
caries and periodontal problems across the study sites. Secondly, the discriminative ability of the generic-and the
CS Child OIDP attributed to dental caries, periodontal problems and malocclusion was compared with respect to
various oral conditions as part of a construct validation.
Methods: In Arusha, 1077 school children (mean age 14.9 years, range 12-17 years) and 1601 school children in
Dar es Salaam (mean age 13.0 years, range 12-14 years) underwent oral clinical examinations and completed the
Kiswahili version of the generic and CS Child-OIDP inventories. The discriminative ability was assessed as
differences in overall mean and prevalence scores between groups, corresponding effect sizes and odd ratios, OR.
Results: The differences in the prevalence scores and the overall mean generic Child-OIDP scores were significant
between the groups with (DMFT > 0) and without (DMFT = 0) caries experience and with (simplified oral hygiene
index [OHI-S] > 1) and without periodontal problems (OHI-S ≤ 1) in Arusha and Dar es Salaam. In Dar es Salaam,
differences in the generic and CS Child-OIDP scores were observed between the groups with and without dental
caries, differences in the generic Child-OIDP scores were observed between the groups with and without
periodontal problems, and differences in the CS Child-OIDP scores were observed between malocclusion groups.
The adjusted OR for the association between dental caries and the CS Child-OIDP score attributed to dental caries
was 5.4. The adjusted OR for the association between malocclusion and CS Child-OIDP attributed to malocclusion
varied from 8.8 to 2.5.
Conclusion: The generic Child-OIDP discriminated equally well between children with and without dental caries
and periodontal problems across socio-culturally different study sites. Compared with its generic form, the CS
Child-OIDP discriminated most strongly between children with and without dental caries and malocclusion. The CS
Child OIDP attributed to dental caries and malocclusion seems to be better suited to support clinical indicators
when estimating oral health needs among school children in Tanzania.
