101. Oral health and access to dental care - a comparison of elderly migrants and non-migrants in Germany.
- Author
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Aarabi, Ghazal, Reissmann, Daniel R., Seedorf, Udo, Becher, Heiko, Heydecke, Guido, and Kofahl, Christopher
- Subjects
IMMIGRANTS ,GERIATRIC dentistry ,COMPARATIVE studies ,HEALTH services accessibility ,ORAL hygiene ,RESEARCH ,STATISTICAL sampling ,CROSS-sectional method ,DATA analysis software ,DESCRIPTIVE statistics ,ODDS ratio - Abstract
Objectives: To compare oral health, access barriers to dental care, oral health behavior and oral hygiene behavior of elderly German residents with and without immigration background. Design: In this cross-sectional explorative study, a convenience sample (N = 112, age ≥ 60 years, 54% immigrants) was recruited in four dental practices in Hamburg, Germany. Oral health was assessed with Decayed/Missing/Filled Teeth (DMFT), Papillary Bleeding Index (PBI), and Approximal Plaque Index (API). Dental health was operationalized as number of decayed teeth, and poor oral hygiene based on a PBI ≥ 40%. Access barriers and oral health behavior were assessed with a standardized questionnaire. Results: While caries experience was similar in migrants and non-migrants (DMFT mean: 24.8 vs. 23.4, n.s.), significantly more teeth were decayed (5.3 vs. 2.1, p < 0.001), and API (55.3% vs. 33.0%, p = 0.002) and PBI (46.3% vs. 30.5%, p = 0.016) were significantly higher in migrants. After adjusting for age, sex, income, education, and number of teeth, migrants still had on average 3 decayed teeth more than non-migrants. However, impact of migration background on poor oral health changed from OR = 3.61 (p = 0.007) to OR = 1.05 (n.s.) after adjusting for confounders, mainly due to lower income in migrants. Fewer migrants had visited a dentist within the past 12 months, and migrants were less likely to have a regular dentist that they visit and more often indicated language or cost barriers than non-migrants. Conclusion: Elderly German migrants have higher treatment needs than non-migrants. Likely causes are poorer oral hygiene and lower utilization of dental care services. Specific prevention programs targeting migrants are warranted to improve oral health in this disadvantaged group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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