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Social deprivation and tooth decay in Scottish schoolchildren
C M Jones1, K Woods, G O Taylor
1North West Dental Public Health Resource Centre, Wesham Park Hospital, Preston.
Objectives:
To quantify the association between dental decay in Scottish Schoolchildren & social deprivation as measured by the Carstairs Index from the 1991 census.
Design:
An ecological study using data from the Scottish Health Boards Dental Epidemiology Programme and The Public Health Common Data set.
Setting:
Scottish Health Boards from 1992-3 to 1994-5.
Subjects:
Random samples of 5,920 five-year-olds, 5,344 12-year-olds and 6,007 14-year-olds across the 15 Health Boards in Scotland.
Results:
Positive correlations were demonstrated in all age groups; 12-year-olds (r = 0.72) in 1992-3, 5-year-olds (r = 0.8) in 1993-4 and 14-year-olds (r = 0.55) in 1994-5. Dental decay in all age groups was positively and significantly associated with deprivation as measured by the Carstairs index.
Conclusion:
Tooth decay was confirmed as a disease associated with social deprivation in Scotland. The increasing polarisation of decay to socio-economically deprived groups of the population, suggests a 'whole population' approach such as water fluoridation would prevent tooth decay in these deprived groups most effectively. Nevertheless all evidence-based interventions should be used to try to narrow the "Dental Health Divide' by improving the dental health of deprived individuals.