The Second National Oral Health Survey of Vietnam, 1999: background and methodology.
Few high-quality epidemiological surveys of oral health have been conducted in developing countries. A National Oral Health Survey of Vietnam was previously conducted in 1989.


OBJECTIVE
To conduct a Second National Oral Health Survey to facilitate planning of preventive and treatment programmes and the dental workforce in Vietnam.


METHODS
The 1999 survey utilised a multistage stratified random sampling strategy to obtain a random sample of the Vietnamese population. The population was stratified by province, urban/rural location and age in order to ensure adequate representation. Participants were clustered into schools (children) or communes (adults). Data were collected through a social survey, and dental examinations were conducted by calibrated examiners.


RESULTS
High percentages of the target samples in each stratum were obtained. Inter-examiner and intra-examiner reliability were good to high (kappa: 0.48-0.98). All data were weighted to adjust for the probabilities of selection and known biases to provide unbiased estimates at provincial and national level.


CONCLUSIONS
The National Oral Health Survey of Vietnam was a high-quality epidemiological survey with high participation rates. This was made possible through strong support from the Vietnamese Ministry of Health and regional and local officials.
Roberts-Thomson
K F
KF
Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, School of Dentistry, The University of Adelaide, Australia. kaye.robertsthomson@adelaide.edu.au
Spencer
A J
AJ
Do
L G
LG
Szuster
F S
FS
Hai
T D
TD
Nguyen
T T
TT
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D003625:Data Collection; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010808:Physical Examination; D012107:Research Design; D018401:Sample Size; D012494:Sampling Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014744:Vietnam; D055815:Young Adult