School of Dentistry and Oral Health / Population and Social Health Research Programme, Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
J Public Health Dent. 2012 Fall;72(4):327-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-7325.2012.00342.x. Epub 2012 May 4.
In view of concerns expressed by South African local authorities the aim of this study was to develop a model to determine whether water fluoridation is economically viable to reduce dental caries in South Africa.
Microsoft Excel software was used to develop a model to determine economic viability of water fluoridation for 17 water providers from all nine South African provinces. Input variables for this model relate to chemical cost, labor cost, maintenance cost of infrastructure, opportunity cost, and capital depreciation. The following output variables were calculated to evaluate the cost of water fluoridation: per capita cost per year, cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit. In this model it is assumed that the introduction of community water fluoridation can reduce caries prevalence by an additional 15 percent and that the savings in cost of treatment will be equal to the average fee for a two surface restoration.
Water providers included in the study serve 53.5 percent of the total population of South Africa. For all providers combined chemical cost contributes 64.5 percent to the total cost, per capita cost per year was $0.36, cost-effectiveness was calculated as $11.41 and cost-benefit of the implementation of water fluoridation was 0.34.
This model confirmed that water fluoridation is an economically viable option to prevent dental caries in South African communities, as well as conclusions over the last 10 years that water fluoridation leads to significant cost savings and remains a cost-effective measure for reducing dental caries, even when the caries-preventive effectiveness is modest.
鉴于南非地方当局提出的关切，本研究旨在开发一种模型，以确定水氟化是否在经济上可行，以减少南非的龋齿。
使用 Microsoft Excel 软件为来自南非九个省份的 17 个供水商开发了一种模型，以确定水氟化的经济可行性。该模型的输入变量与化学成本、劳动力成本、基础设施维护成本、机会成本和资本折旧有关。为了评估水氟化的成本，计算了以下输出变量：人均年成本、成本效益和成本效益比。在该模型中，假设引入社区水氟化可以使龋齿患病率额外降低 15%，并且治疗成本的节省将等于两次表面修复的平均费用。
研究中包括的供水商为南非总人口的 53.5%。对于所有参与的供水商，化学成本占总成本的 64.5%，人均年成本为 0.36 美元，成本效益比为 11.41，水氟化实施的成本效益比为 0.34。
该模型证实，水氟化是预防南非社区龋齿的一种经济可行的选择，这与过去 10 年的结论一致，即水氟化可显著节省成本，并且仍然是一种具有成本效益的减少龋齿的措施，即使龋齿预防效果适度。
