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Relationship between fluoridation and socioeconomic status on dental caries experience in 5‐year‐old New Zealand children
Author(s) -
Evans R. Wendell,
Beck Donald J.,
Brown R. Harvey,
Silva Phil A.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1984.tb01401.x
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , medicine , fluoride , dentistry , social class , significant difference , demography , environmental health , water fluoridation , population , sociology , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , political science , law
This article examines the relationship between fluoridation and socioeconomic status on caries experience, as measured by the dmf index, in 5‐yr‐old New Zealand children in the city of Dunedin (fluoridated in 1967) and in adjacent non‐fluoride communities. The children were subdivided into six socioeconomic status groups (SES 1, professional and managerial ‐ SES 6, unskilled workers), but then for simplicity they were combined to form three groups. A two‐way analysis of variance demonstrated that interaction between fluoride history and socioeconomic status was not significant. In all three SES groups, dmf was higher in non‐fluoride communities, but the difference was significant only in SES group (5&6) ( P < 0.01). Caries experience increased with decreasing socioeconomic status in both fluoride and non‐fluoride communities, but this effect was only significant between SES groups (1&2) and (3&4) in the fluoridated community ( p < 0.05), and between SES groups (3&4) and (5&6) in non‐fluoride communities ( P < 0.01). These results are compared with those of similar studies, and it is concluded that so far, the relationship between fluoridation and socioeconomic status on caries experience remains equivocal. A note of caution is sounded regarding the interpretation of such results, and the difficulties faced when comparing studies is discussed.