Assessment of Sense of Coherence among parents of children with Down syndrome and Intellectual disability and does this affect parents perception of their childs oral health

AIM: Sense of Coherence (SOC) explains why some individuals cope up with extremely stressful life conditions and stay healthy, while others become ill and diseased. The present study was carried out to assess the SOC in parents of children with Down Syndrome and Intellectual Disability and whether it has any impact on their perception of maintaining oral health of their children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The present study was conducted at various special schools in Bangalore. The study group consisted of parents of 30 children with Down Syndrome and parents of 30 Intellectually Disabled children. Parents of 30 healthy children formed the control group. All the children were aged between 10-15 years. Items in the SOC questionnaire were rated on a seven-point Likert scale, where participants were asked to understand each question and mark their response by circling one of the numbers from 1-7. The items were scored accordingly and the mean SOC score was calculated for each group using one-way ANOVA test. Pairwise comparison of mean SOC was done between the groups using Tukey’s HSD post hoc analysis. Significance was considered at p