Ethnic background and children’s oral health-related quality of life

Abstract

Purpose Ethnic background is known to be related to oral health and socioeconomic position (SEP). In the context of patient-centered oral health care, and the growing number of migrant children, it is important to understand the influence of ethnic background on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). Therefore, we aimed to identify the differences in children’s OHRQoL between ethnic groups, and the contribution of oral health status, SEP, and immigration characteristics. Methods This study was part of the Generation R Study, a prospective cohort study conducted in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In total, 3121 9-year-old children with a native Dutch ( n = 2510), Indonesian ( n = 143), Moroccan ( n = 104), Surinamese ( n = 195), or Turkish ( n = 169) background participated in the present study. These ethnicities comprise the most common ethnic groups in the Netherlands. OHRQoL was assessed using a validated short form of the child oral health impact profile. Several regression models were used to study an association between ethnic background and OHRQoL, and to identify potential mediating factors. Results Turkish and Surinamese ethnic background were significantly associated with lower OHRQoL. After adjusting for mediating factors, only Surinamese children had a significantly lower OHRQoL than Dutch children (β:− 0.61; 95% CI− 1.18 to –0.04). Conclusions Our results show that Turkish and Surinamese children have a significantly lower OHRQoL than native Dutch children. The association was partly explained by oral health status and SEP, and future studies are needed to understand (cultural) the determinants of ethnic disparities in OHRQoL, in order to develop effective oral health programs targeting children of different ethnic groups. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s11136-019-02159-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Association of siblings’ presence and oral health-related quality of life among children: a cross-sectional study

“…OHRQoL is not only affected by oral health conditions, but also related to socio-demographic and contextual factors [ 10 ]. Previous studies showed that children with different demographical backgrounds [ 11 ] (e.g., gender, ethnic background) and family socioeconomical status [ 12 ] had different OHRQoL. The siblings’ number is also a key family characteristic.…”

Oral Health Status among Migrants from Middle- and Low-Income Countries to Europe: A Systematic Review

“…Our review included thirteen articles analyzing the oral heath in children/adolescents with age ranging from 0 to 19 years old [39,42,45,46,[48][49][50][51][53][54][55]57,58]. Almost all the studies [39,42,45,46,49,51,54,55] recorded a better oral condition in native children of the control groups compared to the MI groups.…”

“…Our review included thirteen articles analyzing the oral heath in children/adolescents with age ranging from 0 to 19 years old [39,42,45,46,[48][49][50][51][53][54][55]57,58]. Almost all the studies [39,42,45,46,49,51,54,55] recorded a better oral condition in native children of the control groups compared to the MI groups. Only Mustafa et al [47] assessed a good knowledge about the importance of oral hygiene among MI parents, showing that they had on average favorable attitudes, subjective norms and strong perception of behavioral control in relation to child tooth brushing.…”

“…Authors indicate for each item "yes", "no", "unclear", "not applicable" and finally giving an overall appraisal. Most of the cross-sectional studies included an appropriate sample to address the target population, sampled participants in an appropriate way, choose an adequate sample size and described subjects and settings in detail [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][44][45][46][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. Only two articles [43,47] did not select an adequate sample size and one research [43] did not describe subjects in detail.…”

Gender‐based cytomorphometric analysis of buccal exfoliated cells in a South Indian population

“…They speak a series of closely related languages such as Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu. It is known that ethnic background is strongly related to socioeconomic position, which has been shown to indirectly influence oral health‐related quality of life 1 . According to the literature, there is ethnic diversity in bodily habits and craniofacial features, including the morphology and morphometry of the mandible and maxillary bones, and upper airway measurements 2–6 .…”