Preconception Oral Health Is Associated with Modifiable Health Behaviors

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Reproductive Health
• Dental Public Health

Background:

• Preconception health significantly impacts intergenerational outcomes.
• Oral health is often overlooked in preconception health promotion despite its link to reproductive health.
• Understanding preconception oral health care engagement is vital for intervention development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize preconception oral health care engagement and self-rated oral health among pregnancy planners.
• To identify subgroups based on modifiable risk behaviors.
• To quantify the association between these subgroups and dental care utilization/self-rated oral health.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional analysis of 6,159 US participants from the Pregnancy Study Online cohort.
• Latent class analysis to identify behavioral subgroups.
• Log binomial regression to assess associations with dental visits, cleanings, and self-rated oral health.

Main Results:

• Three participant groups were identified: healthy behavior, some risk behavior, and most risk behavior.
• Higher risk behavior groups showed significantly lower rates of dental visits and cleanings in the past year.
• Self-rated oral health was also poorer in groups with higher risk behaviors.

Conclusions:

• Preconception oral health care engagement is associated with other modifiable health behaviors.
• Interventions for preconception health should integrate oral health care alongside other health behaviors.
• Addressing oral health in the preconception period may improve overall parental and intergenerational health outcomes.