Components of self-reported oral health and general health in racial and ethnic groups

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the validity of the General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI), a self-reported oral health measure, when used in an all-age adult sample of Hispanics and African-Americans. Methods: The study groups were 506 disadvantaged Hispanic and African-American adults who were recruited at low-cost medical and dental clinics. To explore the validity of the GOHAI in an all-age, ethnically diverse sample, principal component and principal factor analyses were conducted on the 12 items of the GOHAI and the 14 items constituting the MOS physical/social and mental health components. Results: Four factors accounted for 40 percent of the fetal variance of health as measured by the MOS and GOHAI items: general health, physical/worry oral health, mental health, and social oral health. An association between socioeconomic variables and each subscale was found to be significant except for the physical/worry oral health subscale. Conclusions: This study confirms that the GOHAI is valid when used in younger and ethnically diverse samples. The findings also emphasize that oral health is distinct from general health and that the use of generic self-reported measures of health may miss important aspects of oral health that are valuable for dental health professionals.