Avaliação das condições gengivais, fatores associados e impacto na qualidade de vida de escolares

Abstract

Background: Studies have demonstrated a social gradient for gingival status in adolescents and adults. However, no study has assessed the association between different socioeconomic factors, neighborhood and individual-level social capital with adverse gingival conditions in 12-years-old children considering the context where they live. Moreover, studies that evaluated the impact of gingivitis on the oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) of schoolchildren are scarce. Aim: The goal of this dissertation is to present two papers. The first one assesses the association between socioeconomic status, social capital and gingival bleeding in schoolchildren; the second one refers to the impact of gingivitis on the OHRQoL of this population. Material and Methods: A multistage random sample of 1134 12 years-old Brazilian schoolchildren was examined for recoding gingival bleeding, biofilm, dental calculus and other clinical conditions. Children completed the Brazilian version of CPQ11-14 and data about socioeconomic and social capital variables were collected by means of a structured questionnaire. Contextual variables were also collected. Multilevel Poisson regression models were performed to assess the association between the predictor variables and the outcomes. Results: The prevalence of gingival bleeding was 96.21%. Children with lower income and parent‟s education, with dental crowding and never/almost never go to the church or other religious meeting presented higher mean of teeth with gingival bleeding than their counterparts. This social gradient persists even after adjusted for contextual-level covariates. It was also observed that children with extend levels of gingivitis had higher means of CPQ11 14 total and domain scores when compared with their counterparts, even after controlling for other possible confounders. Conclusion: Data showed that gingival bleeding was associated with poor socioeconomic status and unfavorable social capital conditions, and it causes a negative impact on the OHRQoL of schoolchildren.