[Comparison of results of a dental questionnaire between from randomly sampled residents and patients of dental clinics in the same city].
OBJECTIVE
The present study was undertaken to clarify the nature of sampling results with dental questionnaires between random sampling of subjects and of patients of dental clinics in the same city.


METHODS
The first group comprised 900 subjects selected using the stratified random sampling based on different age groups. The sampling rate was set at 6.46% of the population database and the approach was a mail survey with random sampling. The second group comprised 240 subjects who were patients of 12 dental clinics. The questionnaire had a list of questions about oral health conditions, daily oral habits, daily activities and common eating habits.


RESULTS
The response rates with the mailing method in the first group were 41.0% for male and 49.0% for female residents. The percentages who answered "Yes" to the questions, "Do you have gum swelling?" and "Have you ever received any instructions on tooth brushing from a professional?", were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than for patients from dental clinics.


CONCLUSIONS
Dental patients had poor oral health habits and more oral diseases than residents, who visited dentists less frequently. It can be concluded that patients from dental clinics are inappropriate to use as samples to set a baseline for the general population in research evaluation of oral health.
Morita
Ichizo
I
Department of Preventive Dentistry and Dental Public Health, School of Dentistry, Aichi-Gakuin University.
Nakagaki
Haruo
H
Kokubo
Kazuhiro
K
Tsuge
Shimpei
S
Mizuno
Akihiro
A
Abe
Yoshikazu
Y
Yokoyama
Yasuo
Y
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003740:Dental Clinics; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009910:Oral Hygiene; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014099:Toothbrushing