title: Australian opinions on water fluoridation: do Queenslanders believe differently?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test whether residents of Queensland differ from residents elsewhere in Australia with respect to support for water fluoridation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaire data were obtained from an Australia-wide sample of 517 adults. The study occurred in 2008, shortly after the state government mandated fluoridation across Queensland.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no significant differences in fluoridation support or in beliefs regarding the benefits and harms of fluoridation between Queensland and non-Queensland residents. However, respondents from Queensland were more resistant to changing their minds regarding their fluoridation stance, more distrusting of public health officials, and more supportive of decisions to introduce fluoridation being made by the people via a referendum. After controlling for potentially confounding variables, Queenslanders demonstrated significantly more support for water fluoridation than non-Queenslanders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Perceived Queensland characteristics, which political scientists have used to explain aberrant political behavior or public policy, were not relevant to the longstanding pre-2009 disparity in water fluoridation coverage between Queensland and the rest of Australia. The findings of this investigation do not support the assumption that Queenslanders are more opposed to fluoridation than residents elsewhere in Australia.
authors.affiliation: School of Dentistry, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia. h.akers@uq.edu.au
authors.forename: Harry F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Akers
authors.forename: Jason M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Armfield
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001315:Australia; D003256:Community Participation; D003657:Decision Making; D004522:Educational Status; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005457:Fluoridation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011639:Public Opinion; D011793:Queensland; D035502:Trust; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Queensland; belief; cultural trait; support; water fluoridation