MoBa magasin

publishedVersio

Prevalence of dental anxiety and associations with oral health, psychological distress, avoidance and anticipated pain in adolescence: a cross-sectional study based on the Tromsø study, Fit Futures

Objective: To describe the prevalence of dental anxiety (DA) among adolescents in Tromsø and Balsfjord region in northern Norway and present a multivariate logistic regression model to predict high dental anxiety scores (DASs) among these adolescents. Materials and methods: We used self-report questionnaires and clinical dental examination data from adolescents registered in upper secondary school (15–18 years of age) in this region (n = 986). Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) when using Corah’s DAS as a dichotomous dependent variable. Results: Twelve percent of the respondents reported a DAS score ≥13, indicating high DA. The strongest predictors for reporting high DA were anticipated pain at the dentist, ‘external control belief’, avoidance, low social motivation on oral health behaviour and sex. In this population, dental caries (DMFS), symptoms of psychological distress (HSCL-10) and self-motivation concerning oral health behaviour did not differ significantly between those reporting high DA (DAS ≥13) and those that reported low DA (DAS ≤12). Conclusions: Severe DA in adolescence is a dental public health challenge and this study shows that DA is a hindrance to seeking dental treatment irrespective of dental status. Dental anxiety should have a higher focus on preventive oral health strategies and have a higher priority in public dentistry to avoid this problem to escalate into adulthood.<p

Nutritient intake of young children with Prader–Willi syndrome

Background: Prader&#x2013;Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic disorder resulting in obesity. The diets for young children with PWS must balance the importance of preventing development of obesity with the need to supply sufficient energy and essential nutrients. Objective: To investigate the nutritional intake for children with PWS 2, 3, and 4 years of age and compare it with Nordic Nutritional Recommendations (NNR) and intake of healthy controls. Design: Assessments of food intake for six children 2&#x2013;4 years of age were performed twice a year. At the age of 2 and 3 years data was obtained by using food recall interviews and at 4 year of age a pre-coded food-diary was used. Results: The energy intake for the 2-year-old children was 3.25 MJ/day (SD 0.85) and for the 3- and 4-year olds 3.62 MJ/day (SD 0.73) and 4.07 MJ/day (SD 0.39 MJ), respectively. These intakes are 61%, 68%, and 77% of the estimated energy requirements in NNR for healthy 2-, 3- and 4-year-old children, respectively, and 60% and 66% of the energy intakes of 2- and 4-year-old children in reference populations. The children&#x0027;s BMI-for-age score and length growth was within the normal range during the study period. The intake of fat was about 25 E% in all age groups and reduced when compared with reference populations. In 25% of the assessments the fat intake was 20 E% or below. The intake of iron was below recommendations in all age groups both with and without supplementation. The mean intake of vitamin D and tocopherol was below recommendations when intakes were determined excluding dietary supplementations. Conclusions: More large-scale investigations on nutritional intake are needed to further investigate dietary challenges for this patient group

Editorial: Growth and Tissue Regeneration with focus on Proteoglycans

publishedVersio

Delay of Dental Care: An Exploratory Study of Procrastination, Dental Attendance, and Self-Reported Oral Health

Delay of dental care is a problem for dental public health. The present study explored the relationship between procrastination and dental attendance, focusing on delay in seeking dental care. This hypothetical relation was compared to other avoidance-related factors affecting dental attendance. In addition, an inquiry into the reasons for delaying dental care was conducted. Students (n = 164) answered an internet-based questionnaire on socio-demographic factors, dental health, dental attendance, delay of dental care, reasons for the delay, procrastination (IPS), dental anxiety (MDAS), perceived stress (PSS) and oral health self-efficacy (OHSES). The study found no significant relation between procrastination and delay in dental care. However, procrastination was related differently to past, present, and future dental attendance and seemed to relate to oral health behavior. Delay of dental care was associated with higher dental anxiety and lower oral health self-efficacy. The cost of dental care was the most frequently given reason for the delay of dental care. Further research on the delay of dental care and dental attendance is warranted in understanding the behavior, implementing interventions, and improving the utilization of public dental care

Construct Validity of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire in a General Adult Population in Norway and Its Association with Self-Reported General and Oral Health

Objective - Individuals' Sense of Coherence (SOC) is measured with the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ-13). SOC reflects a person's orientation to life and ability to manage stress, which can impact health. The aim of the study was to test the reliability and construct validity of the OLQ-13, with self-reported general and oral health as criterion measures, in a Norwegian general adult population. Methods - Data were collected using the OLQ-13 in addition to items measuring sociodemographic information, self-reported general health and self-reported oral health. This study was based on data from a population-based cross-sectional oral health study in Troms County, conducted from October 2013 to November 2014 (n = 1875, mean age 47.4 years, 50.5% women). Internal consistency was examined with Cronbach's alpha (α). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the construct validity (one- and three-factor structure of the OLQ-13). The associations between SOC and self-reported general and oral health were tested using one-way ANOVA. Results - The internal consistency of the OLQ-13 was good (α = 0.84). The CFA showed that while the OLQ-13 demonstrated an unacceptable fit, a shortened 11-item version with a three-factor structure revealed an acceptable fit and good internal consistency (α = 0.86). The highest mean SOC scores were found among individuals reporting good or very good general and oral health. Conclusion - A three-factor structure with an 11-item version of the OLQ to assess SOC showed better validity than OLQ-13 in a general population in Northern Norway. Self-reported general and oral health can be considered appropriate criterion measures when validating SOC. To achieve a valid measurement scale for assessing SOC, a revision of the OLQ-13 appears necessary, and further studies are needed

Language of motivation and emotion in an internet support group for smoking cessation: Explorative use of automated content analysis to measure regulatory focus

The present study describes a novel approach to the identification of the motivational processes in text data extracted from an Internet support group (ISG) for smoking cessation. Based on the previous findings that a “prevention” focus might be more relevant for maintaining behavior change, it was hypothesized that 1) language use (ie, the use of emotional words) signaling a “promotion” focus would be dominant in the initiating stages of the ISG, and 2) that the proportion of words signaling a prevention focus would increase over time. The data were collected from the ISG site, spanning 4 years of forum activity. The data were analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count application. The first hypothesis – of promotion focus dominance in the initiating stages – was not supported during year 1. However, for all the other years measured, the data showed that a prevention failure was more dominant compared with a promotion failure. The results indicate that content analysis could be used to investigate motivational and language-driven processes in ISGs. Understanding the interplay between self-regulation, lifestyle change, and modern communication channels could be of vital importance in providing the public with better health care services and interventions

Dental anxiety: A comparison of students of dentistry, biology and psychology

Dental anxiety is an important challenge for many patients and clinicians. It is thus of importance to know more about dental students’ own experiences with dental anxiety and their understanding of dental anxiety. The aim was to investigate differences in dental anxiety levels between dental students, psychology students, and biology students at a Norwegian university

Systemic immune profile in Prader-Willi syndrome: elevated matrix metalloproteinase and myeloperoxidase and reduced macrophage inhibitory factor

Background - Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic neurodevelopmental syndrome with highly increased risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Recent evidence suggests that inflammation is implicated in the pathogenesis. Here we investigated CVD related immune markers to shed light on pathogenetic mechanisms. Methods - We performed a cross-sectional study with 22 participants with PWS and 22 healthy controls (HC), and compared levels of 21 inflammatory markers that reflect activity in different aspects of CVD related immune pathways and analyzed their association with clinical CVD risk factors. Results - Serum levels of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) was (median (range)) 121 (182) ng/ml in PWS versus 44 (51) ng/ml in HC, p = 1 × 10-9), myeloperoxidase (MPO) was 183 (696) ng/ml versus 65 (180) ng/ml, p = 1 × 10-5) and macrophage inhibitory factor (MIF) was 46 (150) ng/ml versus 121 (163) ng/ml (p = 1 × 10-3), after adjusting for age and sex. Also other markers tended to be elevated (OPG, sIL2RA, CHI3L1, VEGF) but not significantly after Bonferroni correction (p > 0.002). As expected PWS had higher body mass index, waist circumference, leptin, C-reactive protein, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), VAI and cholesterol, but MMP-9, MPO and MIF remained significantly different in PWS after adjustment for these clinical CVD risk factors. Conclusion - PWS had elevated levels of MMP-9 and MPO and of reduced levels of MIF, which were not secondary to comorbid CVD risk factors. This immune profile suggests enhanced monocyte/neutrophil activation, impaired macrophage inhibition with enhanced extracellular matrix remodeling. These findings warrant further studies targeting these immune pathways in PWS

«Jeg vet bare at økende press på mennesker gjør noe med oss, dersom vi ikke håndterer det på en god måte» En kvalitativ studie om hvordan barnehageledere kan arbeide for å forebygge og redusere sykefravær i egen virksomhet

Sykefravær kan anses å være et samfunnsproblem, da fraværet koster det norske samfunnet 69,6 milliarder kroner årlig (Hammernes, 2021). Barnehagesektoren sliter med stort sykefravær og jungelen av forskning på tiltak for å kunne redusere sykefraværet i virksomheten vil kunne oppleves vanskelig å navigere seg igjennom. Studien er gjennomført i samarbeid med Friskgården. Det empiriske utvalget i studien besto av dybdeintervju med barnehageledere i kommunale barnehager og en administrativ leder fra en kommune i Norge. Funnene i studien indikerer at barnehagelederne er relativt samstemte i hva som fungerer og ikke fungerer i deres virksomheter. De empiriske funnene i studien peker på at tilbakemeldingskultur og tilegning av praktisk kompetanse er viktige faktorer for å kunne lykkes med å forebygge sykefravær. Det teoretiske bidraget vedrørende barnehagelederes muligheter til å forebygge og redusere sykefraværet i egen virksomhet, er at det kan se ut til å være viktig å sette søkelys på å redusere mellommenneskelig risiko. Dette for å kunne skape økt grad av psykologisk trygghet blant medarbeidere. Videre synes tilrettelegging av økt praktisk kompetanse å være viktig. Funnene viser imidlertid at dersom barnehagelederne skal kunne lykkes med å forebygge og redusere sykefravær, må det nødvendige handlingsrommet være til stede.publishedVersio