Changing patterns in the association between regional socio-economic context and dental caries experience according to gender and age: A multilevel study in Korean adults

Abstract

BackgroundLittle is known about the effects of socio-environmental factors on dental caries in different demographic situations in Asian populations. We investigated whether the nature of the association between regional socio-economic context and dental caries experience differed according to gender and age groups in Korean adults.MethodsWe obtained a linked data set containing individual information from the 2000 Korean National Oral Health Survey and regional information from the “Major statistical indices of Si-Gun-Gu” (city-county-ward), published by the Korean Statistical Office. We stratified participants into women and men and into four 10-year-interval age groups (19–34, 35–44, 45–54, and 55–64 years) and analysed the linked data using a multilevel analysis. In total, 5,259 individuals were included in the final study population.ResultsRegional socio-economic context was significantly associated with dental caries experience in men, but not in women. The patterns of the association between regional contextual variables and dental caries experience differed among age groups. People 35–44 years of age living in areas less dependent on the manufacturing industry and those 45–54 years of age living in areas where local government was relatively poor were more prone to have caries experience.ConclusionsThe results of this study indicated that socio-economic factors affecting residents’ dental health status may operate through different mechanisms or degrees according to geographic location, suggesting that some gender- and age-defined subgroups may be likely to benefit from different types of intervention, including the development of specific health policies.

The Precarious State of Subsistence: Reevaluating Dental Pathological Lesions Associated with Agricultural and Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways

“…Ultimately, this exercise showed that the interpretation of the prevalence of dental indicators of oral health in the past requires a greater emphasis on biocultural and environmental contexts of the populations under study. While this argument toward a better inclusion of local factors is not new and has been explored by other researchers (Lukacs 2011;Lee et al 2012;Russell et al 2013), our study illustrates the worldwide pattern of overlap between the prevalences of dental stress markers. Although categorical lifestyle patterns may sometimes be inferred from skeletal and dental remains, we join recent colleagues (e.g., Martin, Burr, and Sharkey 2013;Temple and Goodman 2014) in emphasizing that such conclusions require a deeper understanding of the biocultural context of the groups, since the variance in the prevalence of markers between groups is not well partitioned according to the subsistence or even climate differences among them.…”

Caries experience and use of dental services in rural and urban adults and older adults from central Chile

“…In the case of the other group under study, they were organised in clubs for older adults, in which most of the participants are women. Regardless of the gender differences in the participants in this study, it has been reported that women have a higher caries experience compared with men, as pointed out above. This situation may make women more prone to have an interest in participating in this type of study.…”

Socioeconomic Factors and Caries in People between 19 and 60 Years of Age: An Update of a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

“…All of the studies were published between 1975 and 2016 [21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81]. Twenty new studies were included in this update [26,27,28,29,31,38,39,40,44,45,…”

“…Twenty new studies were included in this update [26,27,28,29,31,38,39,40,44,45,47,49,50,53,59,61,66,67,79,81]. The language was predominantly English (96.7%).…”