Diehnelt D E, Kiyak H A
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2001 Jun;29(3):226-33. doi: 10.1034/j.1600-0528.2001.290309.x.
Health policy makers have examined the impact of economic policies and a nation's social development on the health of its population.
The purpose of this research was to investigate the association between health care expenditures, socioeconomic factors, and caries levels in 109 countries representing an array of social and economic conditions, and to determine how such factors are related to caries experience at different levels of economic development.
Countries were divided into established market economies and three groups of developing nations, based on their GNP (high, medium, low income). Total health expenditures as percent GDP and as US dollars per capita, public expenditures and aid flow as percent of total health expenditures, dentists per 100,000 population, per capita sugar consumption, and urbanization of the population were compared among these countries. Correlations between these variables, and decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) of 12-year-olds in these countries were assessed.
The highest correlations were found between DMFT and public expenditures, sugar consumption, and urbanization. Highly significant differences emerged across nation groups by stages of development on several variables.
The findings suggest that it is important to consider the stage of development of a given country when planning caries prevention policies and programs. Such a contextual approach is more likely to be successful in reducing caries levels.
卫生政策制定者已研究经济政策和一个国家的社会发展对其人口健康的影响。
本研究的目的是调查代表一系列社会和经济状况的109个国家的医疗保健支出、社会经济因素与龋齿水平之间的关联，并确定这些因素在不同经济发展水平下与龋齿经历的关系。
根据国民生产总值（高、中、低收入）将国家分为发达市场经济体和三组发展中国家。比较这些国家的卫生总支出占国内生产总值的百分比和人均美元数、公共支出和援助流量占卫生总支出的百分比、每10万人口中的牙医数量、人均食糖消费量以及人口城市化程度。评估这些变量与这些国家12岁儿童的龋失补牙数（DMFT）之间的相关性。
发现DMFT与公共支出、食糖消费和城市化之间的相关性最高。在几个变量上，不同发展阶段的国家组之间出现了高度显著的差异。
研究结果表明，在规划龋齿预防政策和项目时，考虑特定国家的发展阶段很重要。这种因地制宜的方法更有可能成功降低龋齿水平。
