Dental caries experience and treatment needs of an adult female population in Nigeria

Background: Experience and awareness of adult females concerning dental caries is important in its prevention particularly in children because of their natural role as care givers.Objectives: To determine the prevalence of dental caries and treatment needs in an adult female Nigerian population.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, adult females attending outreach programmes were examined for dental caries using the Decayed Missing and Filled Teeth caries index (DMFT). Socio-demographic variables were also recorded and statistical analysis done with SPSS software.Results: A total of 430 females aged 16 to 59 years participated in the outreach programme out of which 109 (25.3%) had a DMFT score > 0. Mean DMFT was 0.7 ± 1.6. Fifty-five (12.8%) participants had decayed teeth, 78 (18.1 %) had missing teeth and 10(2.3%) had filled teeth. The treatment need was 34.3%, restorative index was 13.3% and significant caries index was 2.0. There were significant differences in caries experience based on age, marital status and educational qualifications of participants p < 0.05.Conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries among the study group was low but the treatment need was high. Younger females, singles and those with lower educational qualifications had a higher dental caries experience.Keywords: Adults, dental caries, DMFT, female, prevalence, treatment need

Dental caries experience and treatment needs of an adult female population in Nigeria.

Background: Experience and awareness of adult females concerning dental caries is important in its prevention particularly in children because of their natural role as care givers. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of dental caries and treatment needs in an adult female Nigerian population. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, adult females attending outreach programmes were examined for dental caries using the Decayed Missing and Filled Teeth caries index (DMFT). Socio-demographic variables were also recorded and statistical analysis done with SPSS software. Results: A total of 430 females aged 16 to 59 years participated in the outreach programme out of which 109 (25.3%) had a DMFT score > 0. Mean DMFT was 0.7 \ub1 1.6. Fifty-five (12.8%) participants had decayed teeth, 78 (18.1 %) had missing teeth and 10(2.3%) had filled teeth. The treatment need was 34.3%, restorative index was 13.3% and significant caries index was 2.0. There were significant differences in caries experience based on age, marital status and educational qualifications of participants p < 0.05. Conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries among the study group was low but the treatment need was high. Younger females, singles and those with lower educational qualifications had a higher dental caries experience

Self-reported halitosis and oral health related quality of life in adolescent students from a suburban community in Nigeria

Background: Halitosis is an important cause of impaired quality of life in adolescents. Little is known about the prevalence of self-reported halitosis in adolescents in Nigeria and the extent to which self-reported halitosis impairs their oral health related quality of life. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and impact of self-reported halitosis on the oral health related quality of life of adolescent students in a suburban community in Nigeria. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study. Pre-tested self-administered pro-forma was used to obtain the adolescents\u2019 demographic data and their self-perception of halitosis. The Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) was used to assess the adolescents\u2019 OHRQoL. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the median OHIP-14 scores between adolescents who reported halitosis and those who did not. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Ethics approval for this study was obtained from the Health Research and Ethics Committee of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Results: A total of 361 adolescents aged 10 \u2013 19 years (mean age 14.1 \ub1 1.79 years) took part in the study. Of these, 32.7% (n=118) had self-reported halitosis. The median OHIP-14 score among adolescents with self-reported halitosis was 3 (0-9) while those who did not report halitosis had a median OHIP-14 score of 0 (0 \u2013 5). This difference was statistically significant (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Self-reported halitosis significantly impaired the oral health related quality of life of the adolescents

Evaluation of Residents’Accessibility and Utilization of Healthcare Facilities in Oko-Ito Gberigbe, Ikorodu Local Government Area, Lagos State, Nigeria

This study evaluated the accessibility and utilization of healthcare facilities in Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria. The World Health Organization emphasized the importance of healthy living, therefore, it becomes imperative for major stakeholders especially the Government, to ensure the availability of ultramodern healthcare facilities with adequate medical personnel and ensure equitable access by the residents. Socio-economic status of the residents, their location and accessibility are some of the factors identified that influence the residents’ use of the healthcare facility. For the purpose of this research, primary data was collected by random administration of questionnaire and direct interview of residents in Oko-Ito, Gberigbe, Ikorodu. The population of the study area is projected from 3,550 in 2015 to 4,035 in 2019 using the projection formula with a population growth rate of 3.2 percent. With the aid of SPSS, the data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Demographic features of the respondents such as gender, age, level of education and occupation were taken into consideration, and a bulk of the population of the respondents affirm that the utilization of the available healthcare facility, despite its distance from the study area, is greatly influenced by the fact that it is owned by the Government – a Primary Health Center located at Igbalu community with a walking distance of over 1km from the study area. The influencing factor for the utilization of this healthcare facility was evaluated using the Usage Factor Index (UFI) with ‘quality of staff’ having the highest coefficient followed by ‘nature of illness.’ ‘Proximity to home’ has the lowest coefficient followed by ‘good road network.’ The UFI values indicate the need for a standard healthcare facility in Oko-Ito community, and it is highly recommended for community leaders to reach out to all relevant stakeholders including religious bodies and Non-Governmental Organizations both at local and state level to help in building accessible health care facility in this community

Anxiety among adolescents and young adults during COVID-19 pandemic: A multi-country survey

(1) Background: Adolescents-and-young-adults (AYA) are prone to anxiety. This study assessed AYA's level of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic; and determined if anxiety levels were associated with country-income and region, socio-demographic profile and medical history of individuals. (2) Methods: A survey collected data from participants in 25 countries. Dependent-variables included general-anxiety level, and independent-variables included medical problems, COVID-19 infection, age, sex, education, and country-income-level and region. A multilevel-multinomial-logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the association between dependent, and independent-variables. (3) Results: Of the 6989 respondents, 2964 (42.4%) had normal-anxiety, and 2621 (37.5%), 900 (12.9%) and 504 (7.2%) had mild, moderate and severe-anxiety, respectively. Participants from the African region (AFR) had lower odds of mild, moderate and severe than normal-anxiety compared to those from the Eastern-Mediterranean-region (EMR). Also, participants from lower-middle-income-countries (LMICs) had higher odds of mild and moderate than normal-anxiety compared to those from low-income-countries (LICs). Females, older-adolescents, with medical-problems, suspected-but-not-tested-for-COVID-19, and those with friends/family-infected with COVID-19 had significantly greater odds of different anxiety-levels. (4) Conclusions: One-in-five AYA had moderate to severe-anxiety during the COVID-19-pandemic. There were differences in anxiety-levels among AYAs by region and income-level, emphasizing the need for targeted public health interventions based on nationally-identified priorities

Cigarettes' use and capabilities-opportunities-motivation-for-behavior model:a multi-country survey of adolescents and young adults

The use of cigarettes among adolescents and young adults (AYA) is an important issue. This study assessed the association between regular and electronic-cigarettes use among AYA and factors of the Capability-Motivation-Opportunity-for-Behavior-change (COM-B) model. A multi-country survey was conducted between August-2020 and January-2021, Data was collected using the Global-Youth-Tobacco-Survey and Generalized-Anxiety-Disorder-7-item-scale. Multi-level logistic-regression-models were used. Use of regular and electronic-cigarettes were dependent variables. The explanatory variables were capability-factors (COVID-19 status, general anxiety), motivation-factors (attitude score) and opportunity-factors (country-level affordability scores, tobacco promotion-bans, and smoke free-zones) controlling for age and sex. Responses of 6,989-participants from 25-countries were used. Those who reported that they were infected with COVID-19 had significantly higher odds of electronic-cigarettes use (AOR = 1.81, P = 0.02). Normal or mild levels of general anxiety and negative attitudes toward smoking were associated with significantly lower odds of using regular-cigarettes (AOR = 0.34, 0.52, and 0.75, P < 0.001) and electronic-cigarettes (AOR = 0.28, 0.45, and 0.78, P < 0.001). Higher affordability-score was associated with lower odds of using electronic-cigarettes (AOR = 0.90, P = 0.004). Country-level-smoking-control policies and regulations need to focus on reducing cigarette affordability. Capability, motivation and opportunity factors of the COM-B model were associated with using regular or electronic cigarettes

A multi-country study on the impact of sex and age on oral features of COVID-19 infection in adolescents and young adults

Background: Oral diseases are features of COVID-19 infection. There is, however, little known about oral diseases associated with COVID-19 in adolescents and young adults (AYA). Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess oral lesions’ association with COVID-19 infection in AYA; and to identify if sex and age will modify these associations. Methodology: Data was collected for this cross-sectional study between August 2020 and January 2021 from 11-to-23 years old participants in 43-countries using an electronic validated questionnaire developed in five languages. Data collected included information on the dependent variables (the presence of oral conditions- gingival inflammation, dry mouth, change in taste and oral ulcers), independent variable (COVID-19 infection) and confounders (age, sex, history of medical problems and parents’ educational level). Multilevel binary logistic regression was used for analysis. Results: Complete data were available for 7164 AYA, with 7.5% reporting a history of COVID-19 infection. A significantly higher percentage of participants with a history of COVID-19 infection than those without COVID-19 infection reported having dry mouth (10.6% vs 7.3%, AOR = 1.31) and taste changes (11.1% vs 2.7%, AOR = 4.11). There was a significant effect modification in the association between COVID-19 infection and the presence of dry mouth and change in taste by age and sex (P = 0.02 and < 0.001). Conclusion: COVID-19 infection was associated with dry mouth and change in taste among AYA and the strength of this association differed by age and sex. These oral conditions may help serve as an index for suspicion of COVID-19 infection in AYA

The impact of oral health education for caregivers on school children’s utilization of dental services: a school dental screening intervention study at Ibadan, Nigeria

Objective: To test the impact of oral health education for caregivers on children’s utilization of dental services.Methods: Schools were randomly allocated into control and experimental groups. The children in both groups underwent a dental screening exercise. An oral health education program was delivered to caregivers of the children in the experimental group only. Children found to have an unmet oral health need were referred for care. The outcome was the proportion of referred children utilizing dental services in both groups after 4 months. Chi square analysis was used; level of significance was set at p&lt;0.05.Results: A total of 622 school children (mean age 12.3 ± 1.81) years were screened. Overall, 190 (30.5%) were referred for care. After 4 months, 8 of the 94 (8.5%) referred children in the experimental group utilized dental services while only one of the 96 (1.0%) children in the control group did so. This difference was statistically significant (X12 = 4.63, p = 0.03).Conclusion: An oral health education programme for caregivers resulted in a statistically significant but unimportant difference in children’s dental service utilization.Keywords: health care utilization, screening, health services nee

Dental anxiety, pain, and quality of life among exodontia patients: A cross-sectional study

Introduction: There are few studies on dental anxiety (DA) among patients who are planned for routine dental extraction compared with a plethora of published reports on DA and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in patients undergoing third molar surgery. Aim: This study aims to investigate anxiety level, pain experience and OHRQoL of patients scheduled for routine exodontia at a Nigerian tertiary hospital. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Oral Surgery clinic of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria from April to September 2019. DA, pain, and OHRQoL of participants were assessed using Corah's DA Scale (DAS), Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and 14-item oral health impact profile (OHIP-14) questionnaire, respectively. Just before routine exodontia, the demographic variables of the participants were also recorded. Data were analyzed using R version 4.2.2. Results and Discussion: One hundred fifty-nine participants planned for routine exodontia of one or two permanent tooth/teeth with 41.7 ± 19.8 years mean age. The mean DAS score for the study population was 7.9 ± 3.6 (range: 4–18) with the proportion of dentally anxious patients (DAS score ≥13) being 15.1%. The majority (125; 78.6%) reported preexodontia dental pain VAS score of 4–10. Only 22.6% of the participants had their OHRQoL significantly impaired with OHIP-14 score of 29–56. Conclusion: The prevalence of DA among Nigerian adults scheduled for routine exodontia was 15.1%. At least seven in ten patients had moderate and severe dental pain, while one-fifth presented with significantly impaired OHRQoL