Does Individual Deprivation Affect the Sense of Coherence and Oral Health Status of Individuals?

• Main Authors: Nesa Aurlene, R Sindhu, M Sasikala, N Divyalalitha, D Prabu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: JCDR Research and Publications Private Limited 2019-03-01
• Series: Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research
• Subjects: dentition status; oral hygiene; poverty; salutogenesis
• Online Access: https://jcdr.net/articles/PDF/12657/40580_CE[Ra1]_F(AC)_PF1(AJ_AC)_PN(SL).pdf

Introduction: Studies using deprivation status indicators are scarce in the field of oral health research. Deprivation indicators are poverty indicators that help to understand how poverty affects the health status of people in a community. Sense of coherence is a psychosocial construct that has been successfully used in healthcare research to predict subjective health outcomes. Aim: To assess whether an individual’s material and social deprivation status adversely affects the sense of coherence and oral health status. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted combining both a self-administered questionnaire to assess Sense of Coherence (SOC) and a face-to-face interview to assess the Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) in the months of October 2017-December 2017 among 120 outpatients attending SRM Dental College and Hospital, India. The oral health status of patients was assessed using indices of Oral Hygiene Index-Simplified (OHI-S), Decayed Missing Filled Teeth (DMFT) and Decayed Missing Filled Surfaces (DMFS). The results were analysed using SPSS software for windows, version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), ANOVA. Simple linear regression analysis was used to understand whether IDM was a good predictor of SOC in study participants. Results: Mean sense of coherence was found to be higher among patients belonging to a less deprived category (43.29) in comparison to patients belonging to a more deprived category (26.4). Oral health status was also found to be poorer with a higher mean OHI-S (3.36), DMFT (10.5) and DMFS (32.3) among more deprived patients in comparison to lower mean OHI-S (1), DMFT (2.61) and DMFS (4.50) among less deprived patients. The mean SOC was found to be significantly different between people with differing deprivation status at p<0.05. In linear regression analysis, the IDM was found to be a good predictor of SOC among patients with low SOC (r=0.64). Conclusion: The deprivation status of individuals affects the sense of coherence and adversely affects the oral health status of individuals. Initiatives must be taken to address the lack of material resources and barriers to participation in the social activities of a community that deprived people face so that the general health status and oral health status of deprived people in a community improves.