Oral Health Impact Profile Scale Applied to Periodontal Disease: Relationship with Sociodemographic Variables in General Population and Clinic Samples from Monterrey, Mexico

The Oral Health Impact Profile applied to Periodontal Disease (OHIP-14-PD) shows good metric properties and great potential for its application in research and clinical practice.

To evaluate OHIP-14-PD capability to detect associations with sociodemographic variables, to verify whether the OHIP-14-PD can differentiate between a General Population Sample (GPS) and a Dental Clinic Sample (DCS), and to establish whether there are interaction effects between the two samples and sociodemographic variables.

The OHIP-14-PD was applied to two non-probability samples of 249 dental patients and 256 general adult population from Monterrey, Mexico. A validation study was done with a non-experimental cross-sectional design.

Occupation and age were related to OHIP-14-PD, although this last variable was redundant with the first one. In the GPS, the subjective socioeconomic status had a negative correlation with the OHIP-14-PD, but not in the DCS. The marital status showed significant association in DCS and significant interaction with the samples. Being married acted as a risk factor in the DCS, but as a protective factor in the GPS. Sex and education level were independent of the OHIP-14-PD. The expectation of discriminant validity of the OHIP-14-PD between the two samples was confirmed.

We conclude that the OHIP-14-PD presented evidence of discriminant validity. Its relation to sociodemographic variables was limited, being more related to occupation and marital status.