Key Points
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The degree of association between a number of social, economic and behavioural risk factors and the national prevalence data for oral cancer (incidence and mortality), dental caries and destructive periodontitis was determined.
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Statistically significant associations existed for all theses diseases but were strongest for destructive periodontitis.
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These associations should be interpreted with caution, but are suggestive of the need to take them into consideration when developing health promoting oral health policies.
Abstract
Objective To determine the association between social, economic and behavioural risk factors and national prevalences of: oral cancer, dental caries (12-year-olds) and destructive periodontal disease (35–44-year-olds).
Data sources Sources for the social and economic parameters were the UN Development Program; the behavioural risk factors' source was the World Health Organization, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Atlas of History. Oral diseases data came from UICC Globocan and the World Health Organization databases.
Data extraction Data were extracted by hand from official publications.
Data synthesis Data were synthesized and analyzed in sequence using SPSS, Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression analyses.
Conclusions There is a discernable association between the three oral diseases and the variables selected, which varies in strength, being strongest for chronic destructive periodontitis and weakest for oral cancer. Dental caries lies in between. The degree to which variables account for differences in the three oral diseases between the countries studied is striking, being insignificant for oral cancer incidence, modest for oral cancer mortality, stronger for dental caries and strongest for destructive periodontal disease. Removing variables with strong co-linearity with the Human Development Index has little effect on the regression coefficients.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to Dr Katherine Donato, Texas Institute for Society and Health, Rice University, for her valuable discussions and many suggestions concerning this paper and the presentation of the data.
MHH developed the design of the study and co-ordinated the data collection and analysis based on earlier discussions and preliminary work with NGM and RL. EO and RB collated the data and assisted by SN carried out the data analyses. NWJ developed the compilation of the oral cancer data and with RB structured the preliminary analyses of these data. MHH wrote the paper, which was then reviewed and revised by the other authors. All authors are guarantors.
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Hobdell, M., Oliveira, E., Bautista, R. et al. Oral diseases and socio-economic status (SES). Br Dent J 194, 91–96 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4809882
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4809882
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