Examination of the oral health-related quality of life in rural pregnant women after receiving the Health Evolution Plan services

Introduction: The aim of this study was to examine the quality of life regarding the oral health in pregnant women in the village of Robat Karim after receiving the Health Evolution Plan services. 

Methods: The research sample population was 554 pregnant women who visited the designated dental clinics. After obtaining the informed consent, the data was collected, recorded, handwritten, and analyzed by content analysis method using Maxqda software version 2020. In order to support the accuracy and robustness of the data, the criteria of acceptability, verifiability, and transferability were considered. 

Results: There is a significant relationship between education and enjoying oral care. There was a relationship between benefit and pregnancy rank. It was also found that there was no significant relationship between the reason for visits, insurance of paid expenses, and benefit of care. In the qualitative part, there are three themes of dissatisfaction, lack of good psychological sense, physical problems, nine sub-themes, including lack of services, the unwillingness of dentists to provide services, insufficient awareness of pregnant mothers, distrust of the health care system, out-of-pocket payments, complaints about tooth extraction, remorse for not repairing teeth before pregnancy, dysfunction of daily functioning, and pain were extracted from patients’ shared experiences. 

Conclusion: Low use of oral care by pregnant women can mean the Health Evolution Plan approaches for pregnant women have failed, hence the impact of oral problems on quality of life (dissatisfaction, physical and mental health problems) for pregnant women.