Australian Research Center for Population Oral Health, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2011 Aug 19;11:656. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-656.
Social and emotional well-being is an important component of overall health. In the Indigenous Australian context, risk indicators of poor social and emotional well-being include social determinants such as poor education, employment, income and housing as well as substance use, racial discrimination and cultural knowledge. This study sought to investigate associations between oral health-related factors and social and emotional well-being in a birth cohort of young Aboriginal adults residing in the northern region of Australia's Northern Territory.
Data were collected on five validated domains of social and emotional well-being: anxiety, resilience, depression, suicide and overall mental health. Independent variables included socio-demographics, dental health behaviour, dental disease experience, oral health-related quality of life, substance use, racial discrimination and cultural knowledge.
After adjusting for other covariates, poor oral health-related items were associated with each of the social and emotional well-being domains. Specifically, anxiety was associated with being female, having one or more decayed teeth and racial discrimination. Resilience was associated with being male, having a job, owning a toothbrush, having one or more filled teeth and knowing a lot about Indigenous culture; while being female, having experienced dental pain in the past year, use of alcohol, use of marijuana and racial discrimination were associated with depression. Suicide was associated with being female, having experience of untreated dental decay and racial discrimination; while being female, having experience of dental disease in one or more teeth, being dissatisfied about dental appearance and racial discrimination were associated with poor mental health.
The results suggest there may be value in including oral health-related initiatives when exploring the role of physical conditions on Indigenous social and emotional well-being.
社会和情感健康是整体健康的重要组成部分。在澳大利亚原住民的背景下，社会和情感健康不良的风险指标包括教育、就业、收入和住房等社会决定因素，以及物质使用、种族歧视和文化知识。本研究旨在调查澳大利亚北部地区北部地区年轻原住民成年人出生队列中与口腔健康相关的因素与社会和情感健康之间的关联。
收集了五个经证实的社会和情感健康领域的相关数据：焦虑、韧性、抑郁、自杀和整体心理健康。自变量包括社会人口统计学、口腔健康行为、口腔疾病经历、口腔健康相关生活质量、物质使用、种族歧视和文化知识。
在调整了其他协变量后，口腔健康相关项目与社会和情感健康的各个领域都存在关联。具体而言，焦虑与女性、有一颗或多颗龋齿和种族歧视有关。韧性与男性、有工作、拥有牙刷、有一颗或多颗补牙和对原住民文化有较多了解有关；而女性、过去一年有过牙痛经历、饮酒、使用大麻和种族歧视与抑郁有关。自杀与女性、有未经治疗的龋齿和种族歧视有关；而女性、一颗或多颗牙齿有过口腔疾病、对牙齿外观不满意和种族歧视与心理健康不良有关。
研究结果表明，在探讨身体状况对原住民社会和情感健康的影响时，可能需要考虑口腔健康相关的措施。
