Self-perception of oral health by indigenous people: an analysis of latent classes

Given the limited comprehension of the indigenous oral health profile, this study proposed to understand the self-perception of oral health of this population group. This study aimed to verify the association of oral health's self-perceived impact on daily living with sociodemographic and oral health characteristics among indigenous people aged 10 to 14 years of the Xukuru do Ororubá ethnic group, in Pesqueira (PE), Brazil. This is a cross-sectional study conducted from January to March 2010, involving oral examinations and questionnaires applied to 233 indigenous belonging to the age group. Using the latent class analysis model, the variable "oral health impact" was created and applied to simple and multiple logistic regression models. The results pointed out that villages with the highest mean of households and indigenous people with caries experience evidenced worse self-perception, increasing the "oral health impact" 2.37 and 3.95 times, respectively. The Latent Class Analysis was an excellent strategy for understanding the self-perception of indigenous oral health and its relationship with associated factors.