[Quantitative textual analysis of policies about the national oral health based on the policy tools]

Objective: To explore the characteristics of oral health policies at national government level, thus providing evidence for the ongoing refinement and enhancement of these policies. Methods: This study took the relevant texts reflecting the national government-level oral public health as the research objects, and searched the policy texts on Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform and government department websites since 1978. The contents of the policy texts were coded, classified and statistically analyzed. The literature research method, content analysis method and text analysis method were adopted as research tools. From the perspective of policy tools, an analysis framework of X dimension (policy tool dimension) and Y dimension (oral health strategic goal dimension) was constructed to conduct quantitative analysis of the relevant texts of oral public health. Results: A total of 195 policy texts were included in the analysis. From the perspective of the document type, published time and issuing department, notification documents [89.74% (175/195)], documents published at the fourth stage [47.69% (93/195)], documents published by National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China [72.31% (141/195)] accounted for the highest proportion. From the perspective of the X and Y dimension, environment-based policy tools [71.18% (247/347)], as well as oral health promotion and oral disease prevention [40.47% (155/383)] accounted for the highest proportion respectively. Conclusions: Since 1978, the number of oral public health policies issued in China has shown an upward trend, reflecting the strengthening of the coordinated role of various departments, the inclusion of oral health work in the important policies of government health and hygiene, and taking into account the Chinese characteristics of local areas. With the strategic goals of WHO as a reference, it shows that China's policies in terms of health workforce, oral health information system and oral health research agenda are relatively insufficient. The structure of X and Y policy tools in China is unbalanced and needs to be improved.