Oral Health Status and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) among Steel factory workers of Visakhapatnam-A cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: The occupational environment influences oral health to a greater extent. The unique environment in the steel factory might influence oral health and oral health-related quality of life of its workers, especially those who are exposed to its environment. AIM AND OBJECTIVES: To determine oral health status and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life among production line and administration workers of a steel factory and assess their relationship with occupation exposure. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 533 production line and 517 administration workers of the steel factory aged 31–60 years using simple random sampling. The collected data includes information on demographic factors, adverse habits of the study subjects, and oral health-related quality of life using Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14). The oral health status was assessed using the WHO oral health assessment form 2013. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: SPSS Version 20 was used for statistical analysis. A student t-test was done to compare means. RESULTS: The prevalence of dental caries is 62.5% in the production line and 74.9% in administration workers, and the prevalence of periodontal status is 91.6% and 74.8%, respectively. The mean of OHIP-14 was 2.13 ± 0.73 in the production line and 2.33 ± 0.77 in administration workers. All domains of OHIP-14 were found to have high statistical significance with dental caries, periodontal pocket depth, loss of attachment, oral mucosal lesions, dental erosion, and dental trauma in both study groups (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: OHIP-14 scores were related significantly with oral health status indicators in both study groups. The prevalence of the periodontal disease, oral mucosal lesions, and OHIP-14 scores was found to be significantly higher among production line workers.