Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral Health Promotion
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2024.1435555
This article is part of the Research Topic Oral Health and Quality of Life in Vulnerable Populations View all 3 articles

Exploration of oral hygiene practices, oral health status, and related quality of life of individuals residing in the Rorya district of Tanzania, East Africa

Provisionally accepted
Priyanka Gudsoorkar Priyanka Gudsoorkar 1*Rachael Nolan Rachael Nolan 1Sweta Kafle Sweta Kafle 1Aayush Dubey Aayush Dubey 2
  • 1 College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, United States
  • 2 School of Dentistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Oral health substantially impacts individuals' quality of life, making it an important target for global health interventions. This research describes oral health status, practices, and beliefs within the Rorya district of Tanzania to understand barriers to care.Methods: To quantify physical oral health status, intraoral examinations were conducted on adults, noting the Decayed Missing and Filled Teeth (DMFT) and Comprehensive Periodontal Inflammatory Burden Index (CPBI). Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) and semistructured interviews were conducted to understand oral hygiene behaviors and beliefs. Data was analyzed via two-sample t-tests, Pearson's statistics, and NVIVO.

    Keywords: Oral health1, Social Determinants of Health2, East Africa3, dental caries4, Peridontitis5, Oral Health-Related Quality of Life6, Mixed-methods7

    Received: 20 May 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gudsoorkar, Nolan, Kafle and Dubey. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Priyanka Gudsoorkar, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.