Summary
Caries is an important public health problem, given its high prevalence and consequences in the quality of life of adolescents. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the impact of dental caries on the Oral Health related Quality of Life(OHRQoL) in adolescents. A systematic search was carried out in the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, ScieLo and Lilacs databases. Primary studies published in English, Spanish and Portuguese were included to evaluate OHRQoL in adolescents with caries using validated instruments. The selection process and data extraction were carried out by two researchers independently. The Effective Public Health Practice Project tool was used for the quality assessment. Random effect models were used to estimate the combined effect for continuous and categorical data. The combined search identified 1,152 articles, of which 29 studies (34 articles) met the inclusion criteria. Twenty-eight studies had a cross-sectional design and only one was cohort. The risk of bias was classified in most cases as weak (18/29). Patients with caries were significantly more likely to report any impact on OHRQoL than controls (OR = 2.50, 95 % CI: 1.47-4.26). The most affected domains were functional (Mean difference (MD) = 0.74, 95 % CI: 0.27-1.20) and psychological (MD = 0.73, 95 % CI: 0.21-1.26). This review provides evidence that caries has a negative impact on the OHRQoL in adolescents.
KEY WORDS: dental caries, quality of life, adolescents.
How to cite this article
MATAMALA-SANTANDER, A.; RIVERA-MENDOZA, F. & ZAROR, C. Impact of caries on oral health related quality of life in adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Int. J. Odontostomat., 13(2):219-229, 2019.
