AI Article Synopsis

  • Despite overall improvements in oral health, certain ethnic groups, especially visible minorities, still face significant disparities in oral health outcomes among children in Alberta, Canada.
  • Filipino and Arab children, along with Indigenous children, exhibited notably worse oral health compared to their White peers, with Filipino children displaying a particularly high rate of untreated dental problems.
  • While demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors contributed to these disparities, they did not completely eliminate them, except for Latin American children whose oral health outcomes were similar to those of White children after adjustments.

Article Abstract

Background: Although oral health has improved remarkably in recent decades, not all populations have benefited equally. Ethnic identity, and in particular visible minority status, has been identified as an important risk factor for poor oral health. Canadian research on ethnic disparities in oral health is extremely limited. The aim of this study was to examine ethnic disparities in oral health outcomes and to assess the extent to which ethnic disparities could be accounted for by demographic, socioeconomic and caries-related behavioral factors, among a population-based sample of grade 1 and 2 schoolchildren (age range: 5-8 years) in Alberta, Canada.

Methods: A dental survey (administered during 2013-14) included a mouth examination and parent questionnaire. Oral health outcomes included: 1) percentage of children with dental caries; 2) number of decayed, extracted/missing (due to caries) and filled teeth; 3) percentage of children with two or more teeth with untreated caries; and 4) percentage of children with parental-ratings of fair or poor oral health. We used multivariable regression analysis to examine ethnic disparities in oral health, adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic and caries-related behavioral variables.

Results: We observed significant ethnic disparities in children's oral health. Most visible minority groups, particularly Filipino and Arab, as well as Indigenous children, were more likely to have worse oral health than White populations. In particular, Filipino children had an almost 5-fold higher odds of having severe untreated dental problems (2 or more teeth with untreated caries) than White children. Adjustment for demographic, socioeconomic, and caries-related behavior variables attenuated but did not eliminate ethnic disparities in oral health, with the exception of Latin American children whose outcomes did not differ significantly from White populations after adjustment.

Conclusions: Significant ethnic disparities in oral health exist in Alberta, Canada, even when adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic and caries-related behavioral factors, with Filipino, Arab, and Indigenous children being the most affected.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5753483PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12903-017-0444-8DOI Listing

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