Association between perceived oral health and oral health–related quality of life among hospital staff

Background Oral health is closely linked to well-being at work; however, evidence in hospital personnel remains limited. Methods Cross-sectional study in a Level II-1 hospital (n = 72). Oral-health–related quality of life (OHRQoL) was measured with OHIP-14 and perceived oral health (POH) with a modified HU-DBI. Bivariate associations were estimated with Spearman’s ρ and 95% confidence intervals; domain-level relationships were examined with proportional-odds ordinal logistic regression (Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R 2 ). Results OHRQoL was distributed as 38.9% Excellent, 26.4% Fair and 34.7% Poor; POH concentrated in the Low level (52.8%), followed by Excellent (29.2%) and Fair (18.1%). POH correlated positively with OHRQoL (ρ = 0.391; 95% CI 0.18–0.57; p = 0.001). Domain-level analyses showed the strongest links for psychological discomfort (ρ = 0.421; p 2 = 0.111; p = 0.027) and physical disability (ρ = 0.319; p = 0.006; pseudo-R 2 = 0.167; p = 0.004); social disability (ρ = 0.242; p = 0.040; pseudo-R 2 = 0.124; p = 0.017) and handicap (ρ = 0.298; p = 0.011; pseudo-R 2 = 0.131; p = 0.013) were smaller but significant, whereas functional limitation was non-significant (ρ = 0.096; p = 0.424; pseudo-R 2 = 0.014; p = 0.6). Conclusions Better perceived oral health is significantly associated with higher oral-health-related quality of life among hospital staff. Consequently, targeted workplace strategies, including education for self-care, pain management, and functional support, could enhance oral well-being. Moreover, open instruments and pilot reliability outputs are available to ensure transparency and reproducibility.