Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The role of oral health in an individual's overall health is great and affects not only the individual's health but also their general quality of life. According to previous studies, loneliness has a negative effect on an individual's health and increases health behaviors that are harmful to health, but the connection between oral health care and loneliness has been studied only a little. The aim of this master's thesis was to find out the implementation of oral health care in Finnish youth and the connections between loneliness experienced by young people and oral health care. In addition to this, the aim was to find out the factors that were connected to poor oral health care in both lonely and non-lonely youngsters. The health behaviors that affect oral health, which the study paid attention to in addition to tooth brushing, were related to young people's eating habits and substance use. Factors whose connections to poor oral health care were examined in addition to health behaviors were social factors and gender of young people. The research material for the thesis was the 2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. The data was analyzed from the 9th graders' data related to the respondent's experience of loneliness, tooth brushing, gender, psychosocial factors, eating habits and substance use. Cross-tabulation and binary logistic regression analysis were the analyzing methods for the research questions in the thesis. In addition to these, the statistical significance of the connections between the variables was determined using the chi-square test. The results of the thesis show that the experience of loneliness is statistically significantly related to the insufficient tooth brushing of the ninth-grade boys. Correspondingly in girls no connection was found between experiencing loneliness and oral health care. Lonely young people used alcohol, nicotine products and cannabis more often than non-lonely young people. At the same time experiencing loneliness was not significantly related to young people's eating habits. In non-lonely youth the factors statistically significantly related to poor oral health care were gender and alcohol use, while in lonely youth the correspondingly related factors were gender and the use of sugary soft drinks. According to previous studies, experiencing loneliness increases health behaviors that are harmful to one’s health and affects the individual's general health in a way that weakens it. The information obtained through the implementation of this thesis supports previous research information about the negative effects of loneliness, also regarding factors related to oral health.
Author: Yrjölä, Wilhelmina
Institution: University of Jyväskylä
Language: English
Subfield: General Dentistry
Field: Dentistry
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7006890786