Fluoridated-milk schemes have been developed and implemented in many countries to prevent dental caries. This study aimed to evaluate the impact/influence of scientific publications, researchers, and institutions conducting research on milk fluoridation; to explore the international and inter-institutional collaboration and illustrate scientific output trends; and to pinpoint research hotspots in milk fluoridation research. This bibliometric analysis of original research articles on milk fluoridation includes all of the original articles published in peer-reviewed journals systematically extracted from the SCOPUS database. In total, 108 articles were included in this study, with a total of 11,789 citations. A majority (67.6%) of these articles were in the subject area of ‘dentistry’, 22.2% externally funded, 14.8% published in the journal, Caries Research, 7.4% authored/co-authored by Twetman S, 6.5% by authors from Universidad de Chile, and the UK had the highest output (24.1%). The network visualizations showed that those countries with current/past histories of implemented milk fluoridation programs were interconnected on the network visualization map, and they were predominantly the hotspots for original research on milk fluoridation. This study also identified inequalities in research outputs on the topic. With the current enormous global burden of dental caries in children, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, there is an urgent need for greater and more equitable funding of milk fluoridation research globally.

INTRODUCTION Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the major causes of head and neck cancer (HNC). The incidence rate of newly diagnosed HPV-induced HNC cancer is on the rise, year-by-year; this is a problem of public health concern. This study aims to determine the prevalence and predictors of knowledge of senior secondary (high) school students in Nigeria on HPV and HPV vaccines. METHODS This study was a cross-sectional survey of 2530 high school students from six states in Nigeria using a selfadministered structured questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using the SPSS version 25 software. RESULTS The mean (±SD) age of the respondents was 16.4 (±2.0) years, 56.0% were male and 34.9% were from the Yoruba ethnic group. Only 23.0% and 18.3% of the respondents were aware of HPV and HPV vaccine, respectively. The majority (78.2%) of those who were aware of HPV had below-average knowledge score about HPV. Those respondents: in the highest class in high school (AOR=1.36; CI=1.00-1.84; p=0.048); attending girls-only schools (AOR=2.86; CI: 1.93-4.24; p<0.001); and schooling in Bauchi state (AOR=2.56; CI: 1.47-4.51; p=0.001) were most likely to be aware of HPV compared to those in the other categories. However, those: attending girls-only (AOR=2.80; CI: 1.84-4.27; p<0.001); schooling in Bauchi state (AOR=2.87; CI: 1.55-5.33; p=0.001); and belonging to the Hausa tribe (AOR=2.41; CI: 1.51-3.85; p<0.001) were most likely to be aware to HPV vaccine than those in other categories. CONCLUSIONS The level of knowledge of HPV and HPV vaccine among high school students in Nigeria is very poor. There is a need for health education programs on HPV and HPV vaccines in Nigerian secondary schools.

About half of the world’s population requires the services of a dentist. However, the in-depth understanding of the concerns and priorities of the global public and scientific communities concerning dentists is essential for the planning and development of sustainable strategies, interventions, and policies that will cater for the current global oral health needs. Therefore, this study investigated the global search and research interests on dentists using a hybrid research design—a combination of infoveillance and bibliometric research designs. The data analysed in this study were obtained from Google Trends and SCOPUS. The findings show that, over the years, there has been a significant growth in the volume of information search and research outputs on dentists with huge inequalities existing between the Global South and North. It is also notable that the COVID-19 pandemic played a significantly influential role in the global information search and dissemination trends on dentists. The knowledge and funding for dentist-related research flow significantly from the countries of the Global North. The review of the network visualisation of keyword co-occurrence revealed a misplaced priority in the global research interest areas on dentists and oral health. The obtained findings could help to shape the future of dental healthcare and policy.

School-age youth constitute a neglected but highly vulnerable group concerning sexual health risks in low-resource countries. Robust evidence concerning the research landscape of school-based interventions on human papillomavirus in Africa is currently lacking. Therefore, this systematic scoping review (SSR) aims to map evidence about school-based HPV interventions and identify emerging themes, gaps and lessons learned in Africa. This review was guided by Joanna Brigg’s Institute’s guidelines for SSRs and reported based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Metanalysis for Scoping Reviews. Five databases—PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, and Allied and Complementary Medicine—were searched for relevant literature using appropriate search terms and Boolean operators. The retrieved literature was extracted, deduplicated and screened using the Rayyan software. Only those articles which met the eligibility criteria were included for data charting, collation, and summarization. Ten articles were included in this review. The articles demonstrate that a life-course approach is significant in health intervention. School-based health interventions help reach adolescents in a dynamic life stage, affecting their vulnerability to sexual health risks. The school-based interventions serve as an ideal platform to offer HPV peer education, improving their HPV knowledge and subsequent testing services and enhancing their acceptability for screening and vaccination. Cervical cancer education and screening can be effectively combined in HPV health services for women. While the studies are geographically diverse, such effective interventions, which help reduce bottlenecks in accessing HPV screening and vaccination, are very few in Africa. In conclusion, school-based intervention is a viable strategy that can be adopted for adolescent protection from HPV-induced diseases. However, the current evidence on the impact of these interventions, particularly HPV vaccination, is inadequate.

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) research scholarship evaluation is pivotal to the strategic planning, implementation and sustainability of HPV prevention and control programmes in Africa. Hence, this study evaluated HPV research scholarship in Africa. Methods: This review-a bibliometric analysis-investigated the trends, patterns, dynamics and funding of HPV-related literature production in Africa with a focus on the inequalities existing across thematic and subject areas, researchers, institutions and countries/territories/dependencies. The study data were obtained from SCOPUS database and analysed using the Microsoft Excel 2021 software. Result: From 1974 (inception year) till 16 July 2022, a total of 2587 SCOPUSindexed literature on HPV were produced by African authors, with an average production rate of 50.5 publications per year . A few publications (1.2%) were in the Social Sciences. Most (95.1%) publications were in English, only a few (3.9%) were in French, whereas none was in Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili or any other official language of the African Union. South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt were the three most prolific African countries. The 10 most prolific researchers were affiliated to public institutions in South Africa, Tanzania and Botswana. The top 10 funding sponsors were public institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium and South Africa. Moreover, researchers and institutions affiliated to South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda were the predominant beneficiaries. Only two indigenous journals made the list of top 10 journals publishing HPV research outputs from Africa. Conclusion: Scholarly HPV research productivity in Africa is very low and worsened by multiple inequality gaps. There is an urgent need for equitably strengthening HPV research capacity in Africa.

Introduction: Head and neck cancer (HNC), oral cancer inclusive (OC), is one of the major causes of cancer-related deaths globally, especially in Nigeria – a developing African country. Public literacy about HNC plays a very crucial role in HNC prevention. Aim: This study aimed to systematically review existing literature on literacy of HNC in Nigeria. Methods: We searched the PubMed, Google Scholar and AJOL databases for all relevant English articles published on HNC literacy in Nigeria from January 2000 till October 2020. Only relevant articles were included for the study. Quality assessment of the full text of the included articles was done using the Appraisal Tool for Cross-Sectional Studies (AXIS); also, relevant data were extracted from these articles and analyzed thematically. Results: A total of 21 articles (19 surveys and 2 interventional studies), which studied a total population of 7,883 people, were included in the study. All the included articles were rated “excellent” (70 – 100%), regarding quality. The awareness rates of HNC/OC, as documented in the included studies, ranged from 0% to 100%; however, the rate recorded in the majority of these studies was <50%. In-depth knowledge of HNC/OC was found to be generally poor among the surveyed population groups; however, education intervention was found to improve in-depth knowledge of HNC and attitudes toward peer and nonpeer education about HNC among Nigerians. Conclusion: The level of knowledge regarding HNC, in Nigeria, is low. The use of relevant health education programs to boost knowledge about HNC among the Nigerian public is highly recommended.

No abstract

The burden of oral cancer in Nigeria is largely under-reported. The available data on oral cancer etiology/risk factors, clinical features, disease burden, and literacy rate in Nigeria points towards a possible explosion in prevalence in the near future, which poses a serious public health concern. The general medical and dental practitioners (GMDPs) in Nigeria can salvage this looming problem through appropriate public health and clinical interventions. This narrative review article re-emphasizes the key roles of GMDPs towards oral cancer eradication in Nigeria. It also discusses oral cancer case definition, etiology, risk factors, and the epidemiological burden in the Nigerian context.