Fluoridation cessation and children’s dental caries: A 7‐year follow‐up evaluation of Grade 2 schoolchildren in Calgary and Edmonton, Canada

Abstract

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Fluoridation cessation and oral health equity: a 7-year post-cessation study of Grade 2 schoolchildren in Alberta, Canada

“…Another limitation is that, because we tested associations for each socioeconomic indicator separately, we cannot comment on whether or how socioeconomic indicators may interrelate (e.g., interact) to influence dental caries, which may be important for understanding social in dental health, including implications for policy and practice. Finally, and importantly, this study did not directly consider numerous other factors that may contribute to social inequities in dental health, including those which may differ between our two cities (although see McLaren et al, 2021). It is important for future research on this topic to embrace a multifaceted approach which considers social determinants of oral health inequities operating at various levels from the individual to the global (Watt, 2012).…”

“…To maximize the sample size available for each analysis, pairwise deletion was used. A sample size calculation was not conducted for the analyses presented here; it was, however, conducted for our main effects analysis which is reported elsewhere (McLaren et al, 2021).…”

“…This likely reflects the age of children in our study (approx. age 7) and the limited amount of time that their permanent teeth had been exposed to the oral environment (McLaren et al, 2021;Kuthy & Ashton, 1989).…”

“…We analyzed data from population-based samples of schoolchildren gathered in 2009/2010 (pre-cessation) in Calgary only, and in 2013/2014 (early post-cessation) and 2018/2019 (later post-cessation) in both Calgary and Edmonton, Canada. As described in more detail elsewhere (McLaren et al, 2021), Calgary and Edmonton are the two largest cities in the province of Alberta, Canada (2016 population approximately 1.24 million and 932,500, respectively), and census data confirm that they are reasonably similar in important sociodemographic respects, with some indication of lower socioeconomic circumstances in Edmonton (for example, the prevalence of lowincome status was 12.9% in Calgary and 16.1% in Edmonton according to the 2016 census) (Statistics Canada, 2019). Fluoridation was ceased in Calgary in 2011 after having been in place since 1991.…”

“…Elsewhere (McLaren et al, 2021), we considered the average or overall effects of fluoridation cessation on dental health of Grade 2 schoolchildren in Calgary and Edmonton, Canada. The present study, which uses data from the same project, complements that paper by focusing specifically on dental health equity.…”