Impact of Health Risk Factors on the Oral Health of Korean Adolescents: Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey, 2013

Do, Kyung Yi

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between health-risk factors and oral health in Korean adolescents. This cross-sectional study was based on the 9th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey (2013). The final participation rate in the survey was 96.4%. of a Total of 72,435 adolescents (age, 12âˆ¼18 years) who had participated in the survey, 66,951 adolescents (33,777 boys and 33,174 girls) were selected for analysis, after excluding those with missing data. The key variables were oral health factors (one or more of the six oral symptoms), general characteristics (five factors), and health-risk factors (five factors). After adjusting for the general characteristics, frequency analysis, Ï‡2-test using PASW Statistics ver. 18.0, and logistic regression analysis were performed to understand the effects of health risk-factors on the oral symptoms experienced by the study subjects. Subjects who answered "˜Yes' for alcohol consumption had a 1.33 times higher risk of experiencing oral symptoms. Further, subjects who smoked were at a 1.2 times higher risk of experiencing oral symptoms. With regard to internet use, the risk of experiencing oral symptoms was 1.25 times higher for subjects who used the internet for 7 hours or more than for those who used it for less than 1 hour. Compared to those subjects who had not experienced violence in school, the odds ratio of subjects who had experienced it 3âˆ¼4 times was 1.54-fold higher. The study found that health-risk factors were associated with oral symptom experience. Therefore, programs to understand health-risk factors and interventions should be developed for Korean adolescents and provided on a regular basis along with oral health education.