Is stigma correlated with oral health-related quality of life in prosthodontic patients? a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The impact of psychological factors on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in prosthodontic patients should not be ignored. It is unclear about the extent to which stigma affects OHRQoL. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between stigma and OHRQoL in prosthodontic patients. METHODS: A total of 139 patients were included. Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness (SSCI) and its subscales (enacted stigma (ES) and internalized stigma (IS)) were used to measure stigma. OHRQoL was evaluated utilizing 5-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-5), Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire (PIDAQ) and its subscales (Social Impact (SI), Psychological Impact (PI), Aesthetic Concern (AC) and Dental Self-Confidence (DSC)). The association between SSCI and OHIP/PIDAQ was detected employing Spearman correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression analysis. RESULTS: Univariate analysis revealed that SSCI-total, ES, and IS scores were positively correlated with OHIP-5 (rs=0.350, 0.362, 0.279, P < 0.001); the first three were also positively correlated with PIDAQ-total (rs=0.625, 0.589, 0.566, P < 0.001), SI (rs=0.605, 0.548, 0.572, P < 0.001), PI (rs=0.649, 0.634, 0.551, P < 0.001), and AC (rs=0.580, 0.536, 0.534, P < 0.001), except for PIDAQ-DSC (P > 0.05). Upon controlling for confounders in multivariate analysis, SSCI-total, ES and IS maintained a strong positive correlation with OHIP-5 (B = 0.354, 0.427, 0.866, P < 0.001), PIDAQ-total (B = 2.329, 3.044, 5.138, P < 0.001), SI (B = 1.057, 1.458, 2.155, P < 0.001), PI (B = 0.813, 1.020, 1.893, P < 0.001), and AC (B = 0.423, 0.561, 0.916, P < 0.001), with the exception of PIDAQ-DSC (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Stigma was negatively correlated with OHRQoL in prosthodontic patients. Higher stigma may impair OHRQoL. Interventions to alleviate the stigma in such patients is recommended to improve OHRQoL.