Children from low-income families had higher odds of poor OHRQoL (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.11-1.21; 4 studies; ungraded).
Children aged 3 years had higher odds of poor OHRQoL than older children (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.42-2.57; 2 studies; ungraded).
A trim-and-fill sensitivity analysis pooling every exposure estimate gave an overall OR of 0.17 (95% CI 0.13-0.21) after correcting for significant publication bias (Fig. 13); this combined estimate spans heterogeneous exposures and is a publication-bias sensitivity result (ungraded).
Periodontal disease was associated with higher odds of poor OHRQoL (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.12-1.18; 3 studies; no heterogeneity; ungraded).
Girls had modestly higher odds of poor OHRQoL than boys (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.09-1.17; 3 studies; ungraded).
Higher dental caries experience was associated with substantially higher odds of poor OHRQoL (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.43-1.88; 6 studies; high heterogeneity I2=83.5%; ungraded).
Lower maternal education was associated with poor OHRQoL (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.00-1.23; 4 studies; high heterogeneity; CI lower bound at the null; ungraded).
Orthodontic treatment need was associated with modestly higher odds of poor OHRQoL (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.07-1.18; 3 studies; ungraded).