The Social and Behavioural Pathway of Dental Caries Experience among Jewish Adults in Jerusalem

Abstract

Aims: To report dental caries status, related health behaviours and social determinants among a representative sample of adults residing in Jerusalem. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using a stratified sample of 254 Jewish and married adults aged 35–44 years in Jerusalem. Dental caries status was examined according to DMFT, percentage of caries-free persons and of people maintaining all their natural teeth (no teeth missing due to caries). The results were analysed by the independent variables and interpreted by weighted caries scores for the total Jerusalem population. Results: The mean age was 38.63 years. Weighted DMFT was found to be 10.59; 6.8% of the population were caries-free; 67.1% demonstrated maintenance of all natural teeth. Level of education was the distal factor, associated with number of natural teeth, DMFT and untreated decay. Mediating behavioural determinants included dental attendance, plaque level and sugar consumption. Discussion: The findings of this study demonstrated that caries experience among Jewish married adults in Jerusalem was moderate with low unmet dental caries needs. Additionally, data confirmed that a low level of education was a strong distal social determinant of caries experience, which affected dental health status via a pathway mediated by behavioural factors.

Socioeconomic Factors and Caries in People between 19 and 60 Years of Age: An Update of a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

“…All of the studies were published between 1975 and 2016 [21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81]. Twenty new studies were included in this update [26,27,28,29,31,38,39,40,44,45,…”

Religiosity, Spirituality, Social Support, Health Behaviour and Dental Caries among 35- to 44-Year-Old Jerusalem Adults: A Proposed Conceptual Model

“…The sample included married adult Jewish people aged 35-44 years living in Jerusalem. Selection procedures were described in a previous publication [Zini et al, 2010a[Zini et al, , 2012. The age range was chosen according to the recommendation of the WHO for assessing the full effect of caries experience in the adult population [World Health Organization, 1997].…”

“…Health behaviour data included sugar intake, frequency of tooth brushing, Plaque Index (PlI) and dental attendance. The level of spirituality was estimated by the validated Hebrew version of the SpREUK Questionnaire for Religiosity, Spirituality and Health [Büssing et al, 2005;Zini et al, 2012]. Social support was assessed by the validated Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support [Zimet et al, 1998;Ben-Zur, 2002].…”

“…Data entry and manipulation of socio-demographic information were reported in a previous publication [Zini et al, 2012]. Dental caries experience was dichotomized by high and low levels of caries experience using the median as the threshold.…”

“…Religiosity may be a relevant protective factor for dental caries similar to other chronic systemic diseases [Jarvis and Northcott, 1987;Levin, 1995;McFadden, 1995;Benjamins and Finlatson, 2007] as well as periodontitis [Zini et al, 2012]. A systematic review of the medical literature reported that religiosity/spirituality was negatively associated with cardiovascular mortality among healthy populations.…”