Is the oral health-related quality of life associated with quality of life among pregnant Finnish families: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

<p><strong>Objective: </strong>The objectives of this study was to find out if oral health-related quality of life and its dimensions (OHRQoL) are associated with overall quality of life (QoL) among mothers and fathers during pregnancy and whether these two constructs were associated within the family sharing the same living environment.</p><p><strong>Material and methods: </strong>The data (mothers <i>n</i> = 2580, fathers <i>n</i> = 1467) for this cross-sectional data study were collected from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort study during 2011-2015. OHRQoL was measured using a 14-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) questionnaire and QoL by using the WHOQoL-Bref questionnaire. Spearman correlation coefficients were used to assess the statistical significance of the associations.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>OHRQoL was weakly associated at the individual level with the overall QoL (mothers <i>r</i> = 0.21, fathers <i>r</i> = 0.22, <i>p</i> < 0.001), but the correlations within families were low for QoL and OHRQoL.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings suggest that overall QoL is a different construct than OHRQoL though slightly overlapping.</p>