Association between oral health-related quality of life and depressive symptoms in Chinese college students: Fitness Improvement Tactics in Youths (FITYou) project

• Main Authors: Zheng Zhang, Ying Tian, Fei Zhong, Cai-fu Li, Shu-mei Dong, Yan Huang, Xing-er Liu, Cong Huang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019-06-01
• Series: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
• Subjects: Depressive symptoms; Oral health-related quality of life; Youth; Epidemiology
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12955-019-1163-4

Abstract Background This study aimed to investigate a gender-specific association between oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and depressive symptoms in college students, as there are limited relevant studies conducted among youths. Methods In 2017, a cross-sectional study of 3461 Chinese college students was conducted in Shenyang, China. OHRQoL and depressive symptoms were screened by a 14-item oral health impact profile questionnaire and a Self-rating Depression Scale, respectively. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association of OHRQoL with depressive symptoms. Results The number of youths reported to have depressive symptoms was 20.7%. A univariate analysis showed that categories with a OHRQoL score over 6 were more likely to have a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms compared to the category with a score of 0 (male: ORs [95% CI]: 3.10, 2.05–4.68, P < 0.001; female: ORs [95% CI]: 3.11, 2.38–4.05, P < 0.001). Similar results were observed after adjusting for sociodemographic, anthropometric, and lifestyle-related covariates (male: ORs [95% CI]: 3.07, 1.98–4.76, P < 0.001; female: ORs [95% CI]: 2.90, 2.21–3.81, P < 0.001). Conclusions College students who have higher OHRQoL tend to have a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms.