Quality of life related to oral health of patients undergoing hemodialysis and associated factors

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate quality of life related to oral health (QoLROH) of Brazilians undergoing hemodialysis and to identify associated factors.

Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 226 patients undergoing hemodialysis at two reference medical centers. Participants answered a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Brazilian version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14). Descriptive and multivariate statistics using Decision Tree Analysis by the Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) algorithm, as well as Ordinal Logistic Regression analyses were performed.

Results: The Decision Tree revealed that the impact on QoLROH could be explained by age (p = 0.002), tooth pain in the last 6 months (p = 0.026), and region of residence (p = 0.025).

Conclusions: The results suggest that being older, living in rural areas, and reporting tooth pain in the last 6 months may influence the QoLROH of patients undergoing hemodialysis.

Keywords: chronic renal insufficiency; oral health; quality of life.