Oral health and the impact of socio-behavioural factors in a cross sectional survey of 12-year old school children in Laos

Table 3 Mean caries indices in relation to self-assessment of oral and general health status, experience of toothache, and absenteeism from school

	n	dDT	mMT	fFT	dmft-DMFT
Self-assessment of oral health
Good	83	1.2	0.2	0.2	1.6
Average	343	1.6	0.2	0.1	1.9
Poor	112	2.7***	0.3	0.1	3.2***
Don't know	82	1.9	0.3	0.3	2.5
Total	620	1.8	0.2	0.2	2.2
Self-assessment of general health
Very healthy	45	1.4	0.1	0.1	1.5
Quite healthy	365	1.8	0.3	0.2	2.2
Not very healthy	56	2.1	0.2	0.1	2.4
Poor health	11	2.4	0.7*	0.0	3.1
Don't know	143	1.7	0.2	0.2	2.0
Total	620	1.8	0.2	0.2	2.2
Experience of tooth ache in previous 12 months
Often	132	2.4***	0.3	0.2	2.9***
Rarely	280	1.9	0.3	0.1	2.3
Never	182	1.2	0.2	0.2	1.5
Total	594	1.8	0.2	0.1	2.2
Absenteeism from school in previous 12 months
Several times	57	2.6***	0.4	0.1	3.0**
Once	176	2.0	0.3	0.1	2.4
Never	388	1.6	0.2	0.2	2.0
Total	621	1.8	0.2	0.2	2.2

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