The association of urbanisation with the prevalence of dental caries among schoolchildren in Nigeria new capital territory.
The aim of this study was to examine the association of urbanisation and social class with dental caries. A multi-stage stratified cluster sampling technique was used to select schoolchildren (n = 915). Clinical examination was carried out in daylight according to WHO criteria. The distribution of the subjects between strata was: 315 (urban); 303 (semi-urban) and 297 (rural). The mean age of subjects in each strata was 11.4 years. The mean number of decayed teeth (DT) in the respective strata were 27 per cent; 24 per cent; and 12 per cent. Urban children and semi-urban had higher risk for caries than their rural reference group. Urbanisation had no significant effect on the caries prevalence when social class was controlled except among subjects from the low social class in semi-urban areas. The development of satellite towns around big cities do have implications for planning oral health services.
Division of Dental Infectious Diseases, University of Helsinki, Finland.
M A
MA
el-Nadeef
A O
AO
Adegbembo
E
E
Honkala
D002648:Child; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003752:Dental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006285:Health Planning / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011203:Poverty; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012423:Rural Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012923:Social Class; D018881:Suburban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014507:Urbanization; D014944:World Health Organization