Open AccessCommunity water fluoridation: attitudes and opinions from the New Zealand Oral Health Survey
Author(s) -
Whyman Robin A.,
Mahoney Erin K.,
Børsting Torunn
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 1326-0200
DOI - 10.1111/1753-6405.12408
Subject(s) - logistic regression , water fluoridation , medicine , ethnic group , environmental health , population , demography , community health , oral health , public health , fluoride , gerontology , family medicine , nursing , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , sociology , anthropology
Objective: To report the responses of adult participants in the 2009 New Zealand Oral Health Survey (NZOHS) to questions about community water fluoridation (CWF). Methods: The study used quantitative data from the NZOHS. All adult participants aged 18 years and over in the nationally representative NZOHS sample were included in the study (n=3475). Univariate analysis and multinominal logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between variables. Results: Overall, 57.7% of respondents thought that there were dental benefits to adding fluoride to drinking water and 31.7% responded that they did not know. More than 45% of respondents did not know whether there were health risks from adding fluoride to drinking water. Overall, 42.0% of respondents were strongly or somewhat in favour of CWF. Conclusion and implications: People in the Māori, Pacific and Asian ethnic groups, from the two most deprived quintiles, with no education after high school and who brushed their teeth less than twice a day expressed significantly greater uncertainty about CWF than other population groups. This study suggests further research is required to gain a greater understanding of health literacy about CWF and the cultural appropriateness of CWF in NZ.