What factors contribute to the self-reported oral health status of Arab adolescents? An assessment using a validated Arabic-WHO tool for child oral health (A-OHAT)

Background The current study was performed; to validate the Arabic version of WHO child oral health assessment tool (A-OHAT), to assess the oral health status of Arab school children and finally to identify the important risk factors associated with the poor teeth and gum conditions of school children. Methods A cross-sectional study with two-staged simple random sampling technique was implemented. A-OHAT, a self-assessment tool was subjected to psychometric analyses with the respondents being high school children. The Cronbach’s alpha and the Intra class correlation values were computed. Paired t-test was performed to identify the differences between the readings after repeated administration, followed by the analysis for convergent validity. This tested Arabic-WHO Child-OHAT was administered to collect the data. Univariate, bivariate and logistic regression analyses were performed to report on the potential risk factors associated with poor teeth and poor gum conditions of school children. Results Psychometric analyses revealed that the Arabic Child Oral Health Assessment Tool (A-OHAT) was reliable and valid. A total of 478 (N) high school children were subjected to the tested tool, of which 66.5% were male and 33.5% were female with a mean age of 16.28 + 1.04 years. 80.3% of school children had poor teeth condition and 36.2% of school children had often experienced toothache. Children had 1.5 times higher odds of having poor teeth condition if they had increased frequency of sweet and candy consumption. It was also seen that increased frequency of sweets and candy consumption by school children had put them at nearly 20% higher risk of having poor gum condition. Finally, children with the habit of using toothbrush had nearly 50% lower chance of having poor gum condition in contrast to the school children who do not use toothbrush. Conclusion To conclude, the study provides a reliable and valid tool to assess the oral health status of Arab adolescents. Improper oral hygiene habits and diet were identified as the plausible risk factors for poor teeth and gum condition.