Pathways to oral health-related quality of life in preschool children: a structural model from SB Brasil 2023.

Authors

Laissa Viegas Cardoso de Barros, Jéssica Madeira Bittencourt, Raquel Conceição Ferreira, Saul Martins Paiva, Cristiane Baccin Bendo

Published in

Brazilian oral research. Volume 40. Pages e045. Epub Jul 27, 2026.

Abstract

The aim was to test a structural equation model examining the direct and indirect pathways between early childhood caries (ECC) severity and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in Brazilian preschool children, incorporating dental pain, treatment urgency, dental visits, anterior open bite (AOB), and maternal schooling into the model. A population-based study was conducted using data on five-year-old children from the 2023 Brazilian National Oral Health Survey (SB Brasil). The Brazilian version of the SOHO-5 was used to measure the impact of oral health conditions on OHRQoL. Calibrated dentists assessed ECC (dmft and pufa indices), AOB (Foster & Hamilton), and urgent oral health care needs. Parents or caregivers answered a questionnaire addressing dental pain, dental visits, and mother's schooling. Structural equation modeling was performed. Children with greater ECC severity (β = 0.674; p < 0.001) and dental pain (β = 0.241; p < 0.019) were more likely to require urgent care. Greater ECC severity was also directly associated with worse OHRQoL by both by the self-report (β = 0.261; p < 0.001) and proxy-report (β = 0.303; p < 0.001), and indirectly mediated by dental pain in both the self-report (β = 0.426; p < 0.001) and proxy report (β=0.401; p<0.001). Dental pain was associated with worse OHRQoL according to both self-report (β = 0.633; p < 0.001) and proxy-report (β = 0.597; p < 0.001). The structural model demonstrated that ECC severity negatively impacts OHRQoL through direct effects and indirect pathways mediated by dental pain. ECC and dental pain were also associated with a higher likelihood of urgent treatment.

PMID:
42525004
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 29 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.