JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

A population’s oral health is influenced by various influences that are important to understand in order to ensure relevant and appropriate dental public health interventions.

Objective:

To explore the associations between proximal (direct) and distal (indirect) influences that affect oral pain (OP) and self-rated oral health (SROH) status in Saudi Arabia (SA) using an adapted conceptual framework.

Methods:

This retrospective cross-sectional study utilized data from a national health survey conducted in SA in 2017. The sample included adults (N=29,274), adolescents (N=9910), and children (N=11653). Sociodemographic data, health characteristics, and access to oral health services were considered distal influences, while frequency and type of dental visits, tooth brushing frequency, smoking, and consumption of sweets and soft drinks were considered proximal influences. Path analysis modeling was used to estimate the direct, indirect, and total effects of proximal and distal influences on OP and SROH status.

Results:

For children, OP was linked to less tooth brushing, more dental visits, and less routine dental examination, while less favorable SROH was linked to less tooth brushing, dental visits, and sweets consumption. In the adolescents and adults, OP and less favorable SROH were linked to more dental visits, complaint dental visits, and less tooth brushing. Sweets consumption was linked to OP in adolescents and negative SROH in adolescents and adults. Many distal influences had significant effects on OP and SROH, including citizenship, region, and access to oral health services. Nevertheless, differences were observed among the three age groups.

Conclusions:

Among the SA population analyzed in our study, OP and SROH were directly influenced by many proximal and distal influences that had direct, indirect, or combined influences on OP and SROH status.