Assessment of oral health status and its association with oral hygiene practices and oral health-related quality of life among beedi factory workers in southern districts of tamil nadu: a cross-sectional study
Abstract
Aim: This study aims to assess the oral health status, oral hygiene practices and Oral Health Related Quality of Life among Beedi workers in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu.
Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among beedi factory workers in the southern districts of Tirunelveli, Theni, and Tenkasi. The total sample included was 1000. Workers aged 19-60 years who had worked for at least 2 years were included. A multistage simple random sampling method was used to recruit participants. The oral hygiene practices and behaviour of the workers were assessed using a self-structured 19-item questionnaire. The oral health assessment was done using the WHO Oral Health Assessment Form for Adults, 2013. Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) was assessed using the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14). Wilson and Cleary's conceptual model was used to analyse the integration of biological and physiological characteristics and the overall quality-of-life outcomes. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS version 26. P-value<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Results: Among all participants, 73.9% were male, and the majority were aged 47-59 (38.6%). Gingival bleeding was significantly associated with the social disability (p= 0.006) and handicap (p= 0.026) domains of OHRQoL, while mild fluorosis was associated with psychological discomfort (p= 0.042) and higher total OHIP scores (p= 0.010). The SEM demonstrated poor model fit (SRMR = 0.137, RMSEA = 0.102, CFI = 0.829), and findings were interpreted as exploratory associations.
Conclusion: Gingival bleeding and mild fluorosis among beedi factory workers were significantly associated with the social disability and handicap domains of OHRQoL. The biological, functional, and symptomatic factors showed stronger relationships, although the overall fit indices were poor in the SEM analysis.
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