Dental caries in the permanent dentition and health-related quality of life among children and adolescents with sickle cell disease

Abstract

The aim was to associate living, health and oral health conditions with the quality of life (QL) of children and adolescents (CA) with sickle cell disease (SCD). Of the 120 eligible users of a public hematological service, 106 CA with SCD from 6 to 18 years of age, and their caregivers, answered semi-structured questions about so-cio-demographic, health and oral health condi-tions. For QL, we used the validated instrument PedsQLSCD™. The oral clinical examination oc-curred according to the guidelines of WHO and SB Brazil 2010. The majority of CA were non-white people (88%), mean age of 10.4 (±2.9) years, family income of up to two monthly mini-mum wages, for 03 to 05 members, with diagnosis of sickle cell anemia by neonatal screening, hospi-talizations were due allergic crises, polypharma-cy and dental caries (51%) were present. “About the Impact of My Pain” was the best-fit model for the QLSCD (adjusted R²=56%; AIC=28.67; p=0.04). Dental caries in permanent dentition worsened the QLSCD (OR=0.53; IC95%=0.35-0.78; p<0.05) and was associated with the type of school, car ownership, number of family mem-bers, of complications and of the medications. To overcome this scenario, programmatic actions are required, and implementation of public policies specifically directed towards these groups.