Oral diseases and socio-economic status (SES).
OBJECTIVE
To determine the association between social, economic and behavioural risk factors and national prevalences of: oral cancer, dental caries (12-year-olds) and destructive periodontal disease (35-44-year-olds).


METHODS
Sources for the social and economic parameters were the UN Development Program; the behavioural risk factors' source was the World Health Organization, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Atlas of History. Oral diseases data came from UICC Globocan and the World Health Organization databases.


METHODS
Data were extracted by hand from official publications.


RESULTS
Data were synthesized and analyzed in sequence using SPSS, Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a discernable association between the three oral diseases and the variables selected, which varies in strength, being strongest for chronic destructive periodontitis and weakest for oral cancer. Dental caries lies in between. The degree to which variables account for differences in the three oral diseases between the countries studied is striking, being insignificant for oral cancer incidence, modest for oral cancer mortality, stronger for dental caries and strongest for destructive periodontal disease. Removing variables with strong co-linearity with the Human Development Index has little effect on the regression coefficients.
Hobdell
M H
MH
Professor and Chair, Department of Dental Public Health and Dental Hygiene, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, USA. martin.h.hobdell@uth.tmc.edu
Oliveira
E R
ER
Bautista
R
R
Myburgh
N G
NG
Lalloo
R
R
Narendran
S
S
Johnson
N W
NW
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D015438:Health Behavior; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007182:Income; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D008297:Male; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D010510:Periodontal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010512:Periodontal Index; D011158:Population Growth; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012923:Social Class; D014480:United Nations; D014944:World Health Organization