Oral Health in Migrants: An Observational Study on the Oral Health Status of a Migrant Cohort Coming from Middle- and Low-Income Countries
Source abstract
Abstract
Introduction. The oral health conditions of migrants coming from middle- and low-income countries to developed countries have been shown to be poorer than those of the host population. Since the phenomenon of migration has continued to grow over the past five decades, the oral health status of migrant populations should be an issue of great concern. Objectives. The objective of our observational study was to analyse the periodontal health status and the prevalence of dental caries and lesions of the oral mucosa in a migrant cohort resident in Italy, assessing the association between the oral health status and the educational level of the included patients. Materials and Methods. Our research was conducted at the dental department of Policlinico Tor Vergata (Rome, Italy). A sample of 200 migrants coming from middle- and low-income countries, aged between 3 and 37, was included in our study. Each patient underwent a physical examination of the oral cavity, recording the DMFT/dmft index, Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs (CPI), and lesions of the oral mucosa. The one-way ANOVA test was used to establish the correlation between the oral health status and the educational level of the participants. Results. Many participants (62.5%) showed a DMFT/dmft Index ≥ 4; only 27% of the migrants had a DMFT/dmft Index lower than 4, and only 21 of them (10.5%) were recorded at 0. A CPI equal to 0 or 1 was observed in 131 patients (65.5%), while only 30 participants presented a CPI equal to or higher than 4 (15%), and 19.5% (39 patients) were assigned to code 2 and 3. Significant statistical differences were found in the CPI after adjusting data for the educational level of the included participants (p-value < 0.01). Conclusions. The data obtained in our research highlighted poor oral conditions among the analysed migrant population, recording a high prevalence of dental caries and inadequate oral hygiene habits.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Dental Health and Care Utilization · HIV/AIDS oral health manifestations · Osteomyelitis and Bone Disorders Research
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Department of Translational Medicine and for Romagna, University of Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy
Dental and Maxillo-Facial Surgery Unit, IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano, 20122 Milan, Italy
Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
Department of Clinical Science and Translational Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00113 Rome, Italy
Funding
Italian Health Ministry project titled “Dental caries prevention and screening among socially vulnerable subjects with difficult access to care”
References (47)
Show source-provided references
1. Batra, M., Gupta, S., and Erbas, B. (2019). Oral health beliefs, attitudes, and practices of South Asian migrants: A systematic review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 16.10.3390/ijerph16111952 ↗
2. Arora, G., Mackay, D.F., Conway, D.I., and Pell, J.P. (2016). Ethnic differences in oral health and use of dental services: Cross-sectional study using the 2009 Adult Dental Health Survey. BMC Oral Health, 17.10.1186/s12903-016-0228-6 ↗
3. IOM UN Migration (2022, April 18). World Migration Report 2022. Available online: https://worldmigrationreport.iom.int/wmr-2022-interactive.
4. (2017). United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. International Migration Report 2017: Highlights, United Nations. ST/ESA/SER.A/404.
5. Eurostat (2022, April 16). Statistic Explained Migration and Migrant Population Statistics. Data Extracted in March 2022. Available online: https://ec.europa.eu.
6. Zucoloto, M.L., Maroco, J., and Alvares Duarte Bonini Campos, J. (2016). Impact of oral health on health-related quality of life: A cross-sectional study. BMC Oral Health, 16.10.1186/s12903-016-0211-2 ↗
7. Impact of Severe Chronic Periodontitis on Oral Health-related Quality of Life
8. The effects of oral health on systemic health
9. Periodontal disease, and its impact on general health in Latin America. Section I: Introduction part I10.1590/1807-3107bor-2020.vol34.0024 ↗
10. Global burden of oral diseases: Emerging concepts, management, and interplay with systemic health10.1111/odi.12428 ↗
11. (2022, April 15). Oral Health, Available online: https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/leading-health-indicators/2020-lhi-topics/Oral-Health.
12. Oral health care systems in developing and developed countries10.1111/j.1600-0757.2011.00427.x ↗
13. WHO (1998). The WHO Health Promotion Glossary, WHO.
14. Global migration in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: The unstoppable force of demography10.1007/s10290-020-00402-1 ↗
15. Lauritano, D., Moreo, G., Carinci, F., Campanella, V., Della Vella, F., and Petruzzi, M. (2021). Oral Health Status among Migrants from Middle- and Low-Income Countries to Europe: A Systematic Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 18.10.3390/ijerph182212203 ↗
16. Riza, E., Karnaki, P., Gil-Salmerón, A., Zota, K., Ho, M., Petropoulou, M., Katsas, K., Garcés-Ferrer, J., and Linos, A. (2020). Determinants of Refugee and Migrant Health Status in 10 European Countries: The Mig-HealthCare Project. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 17.10.3390/ijerph17176353 ↗
17. Lebano, A., Hamed, S., Bradby, H., Gil-Salmerón, A., Durá-Ferrandis, E., Garcés-Ferrer, J., Azzedine, F., Riza, E., Karnaki, P., and Zota, D. (2020). Migrants’ and refugees’ health status and healthcare in Europe: A scoping literature review. BMC Public Health, 20.10.1186/s12889-020-08749-8 ↗
18. Scholten, P., Entzinger, H., and Penninx, R. (2015). Integrating Immigrants in Europe: Research-Policy Dialogues, Springer.10.1007/978-3-319-16256-0 ↗
19. Parental risk attitudes and caries-related behaviours among immigrant and western native children in Oslo10.1111/j.1600-0528.2006.00256.x ↗
20. Dahlan, R., Badri, P., Saltaji, H., and Amin, M. (2019). Impact of acculturation on oral health among immigrants and ethnic minorities: A systematic review. PLoS ONE, 14.10.1371/journal.pone.0212891 ↗
21. A review on the oral health impacts of acculturation10.1007/s10903-010-9414-9 ↗
22. Oral Health Status, Oral Health Behaviours and Oral Health Care Utilisation Among Migrants Residing in Europe: A Systematic Review10.1007/s10903-020-01056-9 ↗
23. Self-reported factors associated with dental care utilization among Hispanic migrant farmworkers in South Florida10.1111/jphd.12364 ↗
24. Oral condition and background factors in Somali immigrant children newly arrived in Sweden
25. Oral Health Status of Immigrant and Refugee Children in North America: A Scoping Review
26. Enabling and Predisposing Factors for the Utilization of Preventive Dental Health Care in Migrants and Non-Migrants in Germany10.3389/fpubh.2017.00201 ↗
27. Acculturation and Pediatric Minority Oral Health Interventions10.1016/j.cden.2017.02.006 ↗
28. Beyond access: The role of family and community in children’s oral health10.1002/j.0022-0337.2007.71.5.tb04319.x ↗
29. Evaluation of Oral Health Status Based on the Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth (DMFT) Index
30. For debate: Problems with the dmf index pertinent to dental caries data analysis10.1111/j.1600-0528.2005.00259.x ↗
31. Validation of the reproducibility of the dmf index used in bucco-dental epidemiology and evaluation of its 2 clinical forms
32. International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) and its International Caries Classification and Management System (ICCMS)—Methods for staging of the caries process and enabling dentists to manage caries10.1111/cdoe.12025 ↗
33. Global Prevalence of Periodontal Disease and Lack of Its Surveillance10.1155/2020/2146160 ↗
34. Community periodontal index of treatment needs and prevalence of periodontal conditions10.1034/j.1600-051x.2000.027005308.x ↗
35. Oral potentially malignant disorders: A consensus report from an international seminar on nomenclature and classification, convened by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Oral Cancer10.1111/odi.13704 ↗
36. Community periodontal index of treatment needs index: An indicator of anaerobic periodontal infection10.4103/0970-9290.59441 ↗
37. The community periodontal index of treatment needs (CPITN) procedure for population groups and individuals
38. Prevalence of Early Childhood Caries (ECC) in a paediatric italian population: An epidemiological study
39. National Pathfinder Survey of 12-Year-Old Children’s Oral Health in Italy10.1159/000110884 ↗
40. Oral health status and Unmet Restorative Treatment Needs (UTN) in disadvantaged migrant and not migrant children in Italy
41. Ethnic background and children’s oral health-related quality of life10.1007/s11136-019-02159-z ↗
42. (2022, May 27). OurWorldinData. Available online: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-per-capita-caloric-supply.
43. Influence of parents’ oral health behaviour on oral health status of their school children: An exploratory study employing a causal modelling technique10.1046/j.1365-263X.2002.00338.x ↗
44. Attitudes toward brushing children’s teeth—A study among parents with immigrant status in Norway10.1111/ipd.12683 ↗
45. Ke, X., Zhang, L., Li, Z., and Tang, W. (2020). Inequality in health service utilization among migrant and local children: A cross-sectional survey of children aged 0–14 years in Shenzhen, China. BMC Public Health, 20.10.1186/s12889-020-09781-4 ↗
46. Development level of the country of parental origin on dental caries in children of immigrant parents in Sweden10.1111/apa.15882 ↗
47. Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Periodontal Disease: The Dental Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study10.2105/AJPH.2004.055277 ↗