Assessment of oral health related quality of life
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Assessment of oral health related quality of life P Finbarr Allen* Address: Department of Restorative Dentistry, University Dental School & Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Ireland Email: P Finbarr Allen* - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 08 September 2003 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003, 1:40
Received: 14 July 2003 Accepted: 08 September 2003
This article is available from: http://www.hqlo.com/content/1/1/40 © 2003 Allen; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.
Abstract In Dentistry, as in other branches of Medicine, it has been recognised that objective measures of disease provide little insight into the impact of oral disorders on daily living and quality of life. A significant body of development work has been undertaken to provide health status measures for use as outcome measures in dentistry. In descriptive population studies, poor oral health related quality of life is associated with tooth loss. There is a less extensive literature of longitudinal clinical trials, and measurement of change and interpretation of change scores continues to pose a challenge. This paper reviews the literature regarding the development and use of these oral health related QoL measures and includes an appraisal of future research needs in this area.
Introduction In an effort to focus on the assessment of health and quality of life issues, the term "health-related quality of life" is now widely used. Regarding the relationship of health and disease to quality of life, there appears to be an association between these domains which is not clearly defined. Locker suggested that health problems may affect quality of life but such a consequence is not inevitable [1]. The implication of this is that people with chronic disabling disorders often perceive their quality of life as better than healthy individuals, i.e., poor health or presence of disease does not inevitably mean poor quality of life. Allison et al attempted to further explain this phenomenon by suggesting that quality of life was a "dynamic construct", and thus likely to be subject to change over time [2]. Individual attitudes are not constant, vary with time and experience, and are modified by phenomena such as coping, expectancy and adaptation. They give as an example an individual who had eating problems due to pain and discomfort, who would have rated this problem as extremely important at one point in time. However, when this problem is diagnosed as oral cancer, and treated with
radiotherapy and/or surgery, the same individual may report the original problem as relatively unimportant. Interest in the outcome of oral health problems has been the subject of significant research activity over the past ten or so years. Oral healthcare researchers and policymakers have recognised that assessment of oral health outcomes is vital to planning ora
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