Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, School of Dentistry, The University of Adelaide, SA, Australia.
Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2012 Feb;40(1):53-61. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0528.2011.00634.x. Epub 2011 Sep 2.
Few longitudinal studies have investigated the association between dental attendance and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). These studies were limited to older adults, or to study participants with an oral disadvantage and did not assess if dental attendance had a different effect on OHRQoL for different people.
This project was designed to test whether routine dental attendance improved the OHRQoL of survey participants and whether any patient factors influenced the effect of dental attendance on change in OHRQoL.
Collection instruments of a service use log book and a 12 month follow-up mail self-complete questionnaire were added to the Tasmanian component of the National Survey of Adult Oral Health 2004/06. The dependent variable was change in OHIP-14 severity and the independent variable was dental attendance. Many putative confounders/effect modifiers were analysed in bivariate, stratified and three-model multivariate analyses. These included indicators of treatment need, sociodemographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, pattern of dental attendance and access to dental care.
None of the putative confounders were associated with both dental attendance and the change in mean OHIP-14 severity. The only statistically significant interaction for change in OHIP-14 severity was observed for dental attendance by residential location (P < 0.01). In multivariate analysis, there was a statistically significant association of dental attendance with change in mean OHIP-14 severity. It also showed that the difference in association of attendance between Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania, and other places was statistically significant based on the interaction between residential location and attendance (P < 0.05).
The effect of dental attendance on OHRQoL was influenced by a patient's residential location.
鲜有纵向研究调查过就诊频率与口腔健康相关生活质量（OHRQoL）之间的关联。这些研究仅限于老年人，或研究参与者存在口腔劣势，且并未评估就诊频率对不同人群的 OHRQoL 是否有不同影响。
本项目旨在检验常规就诊是否能提高调查参与者的 OHRQoL，以及患者的哪些因素会影响就诊对 OHRQoL 变化的影响。
在 2004/06 年全国成人口腔健康调查塔斯马尼亚部分中，我们加入了使用日志簿和为期 12 个月的随访邮件自填问卷的收集工具。因变量为 OHIP-14 严重程度的变化，自变量为就诊频率。在双变量、分层和三模型多变量分析中，我们分析了许多可能的混杂因素/效应修饰因素。这些因素包括治疗需求、社会人口特征、社会经济地位、就诊模式和获得牙科保健的机会的指标。
没有一个潜在混杂因素既与就诊频率又与平均 OHIP-14 严重程度的变化相关。唯一在 OHIP-14 严重程度变化方面具有统计学显著交互作用的是就诊频率与居住地点（P < 0.01）。在多变量分析中，就诊频率与平均 OHIP-14 严重程度的变化之间存在统计学显著关联。分析还表明，基于居住地点和就诊之间的交互作用，塔斯马尼亚首府霍巴特与其他地方之间的就诊关联差异具有统计学意义（P < 0.05）。
就诊对 OHRQoL 的影响受到患者居住地点的影响。
