Association of Dental Anxiety and Oral Health-related Quality of Life in Pregnant Women: A Cross-sectional Survey

Abstract

To explore the association between dental anxiety and oral health-related quality of life among Chinese pregnant women. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a consecutive 502 pregnant women in the outpatient departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology from a local general hospital. The measures included a dental anxiety questionnaire to assess dental anxiety, the Chinese version of Oral Health Impact Profile to assess oral health-related quality of life, and a self-designed questionnaire to collect data on the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Of the participants, 26.7% suffered from dental anxiety. The overall OHIP-14 was 9.16 ± 7.19. Both bivariate and multivariate analysis found that higher dental anxiety was significantly associated with lower oral health-related quality of life (P < 0.001). The dental anxiety of pregnant women may be a significant indicator of their oral health-related quality of life.