Resumen de Perceived influence of oral health upon quality of life in heart transplant patients

Rafael Segura Saint Gerons, Carmen Segura Saint Gerons, Rosario Alcántara Luque, José M. Arizón del Prado, Carla Foronda García Hidalgo, Antonio Blanco Hungría

• Objective: A study was made of heart transplant patient perception of the influence of oral health upon quality of life, based on the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-49) questionnaire validated for Spanish speaking subjects.

  Design: A cross-sectional evaluation was made of the heart transplant patients followed-up on in the Heart Transplantation Unit of Reina Sofía University Hospital (Spain), using the OHIP-49 questionnaire. The included patients were all over age 18 and signed the corresponding informed consent to participation in the study.

  The data were entered in a database and analyzed using the SPSS statistical package.

  Results: A total of 150 heart transplant patients (118 males and 32 females, with a mean age of 54.94 years; range 19-79) were studied. The subjects showed a poor perceived influence of oral health upon quality of life, with a mean score of 24.43 out of a possible total of 196 points.

  Women showed significantly improved perception of the influence of oral health upon quality of life versus men.

  Conclusions: The subjects in our study showed a poor perceived influence of oral health upon quality of life.