Abstract
BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate a gender-specific association between oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and depressive symptoms in college students, as there are limited relevant studies conducted among youths.MethodsIn 2017, a cross-sectional study of 3461 Chinese college students was conducted in Shenyang, China. OHRQoL and depressive symptoms were screened by a 14-item oral health impact profile questionnaire and a Self-rating Depression Scale, respectively. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association of OHRQoL with depressive symptoms.ResultsThe number of youths reported to have depressive symptoms was 20.7%. A univariate analysis showed that categories with a OHRQoL score over 6 were more likely to have a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms compared to the category with a score of 0 (male: ORs [95% CI]: 3.10, 2.05–4.68, P < 0.001; female: ORs [95% CI]: 3.11, 2.38–4.05, P < 0.001). Similar results were observed after adjusting for sociodemographic, anthropometric, and lifestyle-related covariates (male: ORs [95% CI]: 3.07, 1.98–4.76, P < 0.001; female: ORs [95% CI]: 2.90, 2.21–3.81, P < 0.001).ConclusionsCollege students who have higher OHRQoL tend to have a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms.
Highlights
Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by feelings of sadness, guilt, or low interest and self-worth, feelings of tiredness, and poor concentration, poor appetite, or disturbed sleep
It is unclear whether depressive symptoms are related to oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in youths screened by the 14-item Oral health impact profile (OHIP-14) [12], which is a scale measuring perception of the social impact of oral disorders on their wellbeing
As gender differences in the associations between OHRQoL and emotional status in children and pre-adolescents have previously been observed [13], and the female gender has been reported to be negatively correlated with OHRQoL in depression models [11], separate estimates for males and females were included in all the analyses and results
Summary
Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by feelings of sadness, guilt, or low interest and self-worth, feelings of tiredness, and poor concentration, poor appetite, or disturbed sleep. Similar studies have not been conducted on Asian youths It is unclear whether depressive symptoms are related to OHRQoL in youths screened by the 14-item Oral health impact profile (OHIP-14) [12], which is a scale measuring perception of the social impact of oral disorders on their wellbeing. Clarifying such an association is crucial since this may help us to better understand how OHRQoL serves as a critical factor for the risk of depressive symptoms in both genders. This study aimed to investigate a gender-specific association between oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and depressive symptoms in college students, as there are limited relevant studies conducted among youths
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