Cargando…
A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care
Background Alexithymia is a personality trait involving difficulties in emotional regulation (difficulties in identifying feelings, difficulties in describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking). It has a negative impact on health as it evokes poor personal hygiene, poor nutrition, and unhea...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Cureus
2023
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10493171/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37700995 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.43341 |
_version_ | 1785104417780924416 |
---|---|
author | Suresh, Sneha Singh Baghel, Ranjita Gautam, Abhishek Kumar, Anant Sundar, Deep Kriti, Suman |
author_facet | Suresh, Sneha Singh Baghel, Ranjita Gautam, Abhishek Kumar, Anant Sundar, Deep Kriti, Suman |
author_sort | Suresh, Sneha |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background Alexithymia is a personality trait involving difficulties in emotional regulation (difficulties in identifying feelings, difficulties in describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking). It has a negative impact on health as it evokes poor personal hygiene, poor nutrition, and unhealthy behaviors in affected subjects. Identifying alexithymia in the dental setup is vital as it can compromise the patient-dentist relationship, especially in subjects neglecting oral hygiene. Aims The present study aimed to establish an association between alexithymia and dental neglect among adult subjects seeking dental care by using Dental Neglect Scale (DNS), and alexithymia was assessed on the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Methods The present cross-sectional survey study included adult subjects of age 20 years or more. For all included participants, a structured questionnaire was given to assess dental neglect on demographic profile, six items of the DNS, and alexithymia was assessed on the 20-item TAS-20. The collected data were analyzed using a Chi-square test keeping significance at the p-value of <0.05. Results In 534 adult subjects, females had high scores for both TAS-20 and DNS along with their related factors. With higher education and increasing age, a significant increase in the mean TAS-20 scores and mean DNS scores was seen in the study participants (high mean DNS scores in females (19.55±3.98) compared to male subjects 19.36±4.34). TAS-20 scores were higher in females (59.31±10.78), factor 1 (DIF) (19.54±5.54), factor 2 (DDF) (15.46±4.05), and factor 3 (EOT) (24.34±4.64). Conclusion The present study, considering its limitations, concludes that there is no association between dental neglect and alexithymia in adult subjects seeking dental care. However, higher DNS and TAS-20 scores are seen in females showing them have difficult descriptions and identification of feelings in dental set-up increasing dental neglect among them. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10493171 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Cureus |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-104931712023-09-11 A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care Suresh, Sneha Singh Baghel, Ranjita Gautam, Abhishek Kumar, Anant Sundar, Deep Kriti, Suman Cureus Public Health Background Alexithymia is a personality trait involving difficulties in emotional regulation (difficulties in identifying feelings, difficulties in describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking). It has a negative impact on health as it evokes poor personal hygiene, poor nutrition, and unhealthy behaviors in affected subjects. Identifying alexithymia in the dental setup is vital as it can compromise the patient-dentist relationship, especially in subjects neglecting oral hygiene. Aims The present study aimed to establish an association between alexithymia and dental neglect among adult subjects seeking dental care by using Dental Neglect Scale (DNS), and alexithymia was assessed on the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Methods The present cross-sectional survey study included adult subjects of age 20 years or more. For all included participants, a structured questionnaire was given to assess dental neglect on demographic profile, six items of the DNS, and alexithymia was assessed on the 20-item TAS-20. The collected data were analyzed using a Chi-square test keeping significance at the p-value of <0.05. Results In 534 adult subjects, females had high scores for both TAS-20 and DNS along with their related factors. With higher education and increasing age, a significant increase in the mean TAS-20 scores and mean DNS scores was seen in the study participants (high mean DNS scores in females (19.55±3.98) compared to male subjects 19.36±4.34). TAS-20 scores were higher in females (59.31±10.78), factor 1 (DIF) (19.54±5.54), factor 2 (DDF) (15.46±4.05), and factor 3 (EOT) (24.34±4.64). Conclusion The present study, considering its limitations, concludes that there is no association between dental neglect and alexithymia in adult subjects seeking dental care. However, higher DNS and TAS-20 scores are seen in females showing them have difficult descriptions and identification of feelings in dental set-up increasing dental neglect among them. Cureus 2023-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10493171/ /pubmed/37700995 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.43341 Text en Copyright © 2023, Suresh et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Public Health Suresh, Sneha Singh Baghel, Ranjita Gautam, Abhishek Kumar, Anant Sundar, Deep Kriti, Suman A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care |
title | A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care |
title_full | A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care |
title_fullStr | A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care |
title_full_unstemmed | A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care |
title_short | A Cross-Sectional Study to Analyze the Correlation Between Alexithymia and Dental Neglect in Persons Pursuing Dental Care |
title_sort | cross-sectional study to analyze the correlation between alexithymia and dental neglect in persons pursuing dental care |
topic | Public Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10493171/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37700995 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.43341 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT sureshsneha acrosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT singhbaghelranjita acrosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT gautamabhishek acrosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT kumaranant acrosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT sundardeep acrosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT kritisuman acrosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT sureshsneha crosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT singhbaghelranjita crosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT gautamabhishek crosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT kumaranant crosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT sundardeep crosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare AT kritisuman crosssectionalstudytoanalyzethecorrelationbetweenalexithymiaanddentalneglectinpersonspursuingdentalcare |