Social support, oral health knowledge, attitudes, practice, self-efficacy and oral health-related quality of life in Chinese college students

Oral health is crucial for health-related quality of life. However, the research on the factors affecting oral health status is not comprehensive enough. This investigation aimed to evaluate the multifaceted determinants of college students’ oral health status and explore the impact of social support, oral health literacy, attitudes, behaviors, and self-efficacy on OHRQoL. By surveying 822 students from a university. Baseline data included sociodemographics (gender, age), social support (MSPSS scale), oral health self-efficacy (SESS scale), oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP questionnaire), and OHRQoL (OHIP-14 scale). Based on social cognitive theory, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) were used to examine the relationship between the study variables. PLS-SEM results showed that knowledge, attitude, and practice predicted OHRQoL through self-efficacy. FsQCA results showed that the combination of different variables was sufficient to explain OHRQoL. The conclusion was that self-efficacy plays an important role and the combination of high-level knowledge, positive attitudes, and strong self-efficacy was important in improving OHRQoL. The results of this study provided a reference for the oral health strategy planning of college students in China.