Self-reported halitosis and oral health related quality of life in adolescent students from a suburban community in Nigeria

Background: Halitosis is an important cause of impaired quality of life in adolescents. Little is known about the prevalence of self-reported halitosis in adolescents in Nigeria and the extent to which self-reported halitosis impairs their oral health related quality of life.
Objectives: To determine the prevalence and impact of self-reported halitosis on the oral health related quality of life of adolescent students in a suburban community in Nigeria.
Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study. Pre-tested self-administered pro-forma was used to obtain the adolescents’ demographic data and their self-perception of halitosis. The Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) was used to assess the adolescents’ OHRQoL. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the median OHIP-14 scores between adolescents who reported halitosis and those who did not. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Ethics approval for this study was obtained from the Health Research and Ethics Committee of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
Results: A total of 361 adolescents aged 10 – 19 years (mean age 14.1 ± 1.79 years) took part in the study. Of these, 32.7% (n=118) had self-reported halitosis. The median OHIP-14 score among adolescents with self-reported halitosis was 3 (0-9) while those who did not report halitosis had a median OHIP-14 score of 0 (0 – 5). This difference was statistically significant (p < 0.0001).
Conclusion: Self-reported halitosis significantly impaired the oral health related quality of life of the adolescents.