فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

The sense of coherence (SOC) is defined as a personal orientation to life. People with higher SOCare better at dealing with stressful situations, psychological stress, and problems and are more ableto manage them, leading to better general health. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectof SOC on the oral health status of people in different age groups. A systematic search up to May2019 was carried out in PubMed,Scopus, Psycho info, and Persian sources. Studies were includedif they evaluated the relationship between SOC and oral health behaviors (OHBs) or oral healthstatus including dental caries. The Newcastle‑Ottawa checklist was used to appraise the selectedarticles and meta‑analysis of included studies were performed using Comprehensive Meta‑Analysissoftware. Value of P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Odds ratio (OR) was usedto measure effect size with 95% confidence interval (CI). The random‑effects model was chosenin the presence of heterogenicity. I2 index and Q index were used to measure the heterogeneitypresent between the studies. Fifteen articles received the minimum score of criticism. In general,SOC could significantly affect the oral health and OHBs of adults independently of the underlyingfactors. There was a significant relationship between SOC and tooth decay in adolescents, but thisassociation was poor after adjusting for the underlying factors. In children, only one article revealedan association with OHBs. Meta‑analysis revealed that SOC was significantly associated with thecaries rate (OR = 0.78, CI 95% = 0.9–0.67, P = 0.001) and tooth brushing frequency (OR = 1.22,CI 95% = 1.1–1.31 and P < 0.001). Sense of coherence appears to be one of the effective factorsin predicting oral health behaviors and ultimately oral health, especially in adults. The number ofarticles available for children and adolescents was not sufficient in this regard.