Department of Community Dentistry, Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel.
Caries Res. 2012;46(4):368-75. doi: 10.1159/000338404. Epub 2012 Jun 2.
The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between religiosity and dental caries, and whether oral health-related behaviours, spirituality and social support are included in the potential pathways which explain the association between religiosity and dental caries. The present cross-sectional study employed a stratified sample, according to religiosity level (33.1% secular, 33.1% religious and 33.9% orthodox), of 254 Jewish adults in Jerusalem. The objective was to examine the pathway between religiosity, spirituality and social support and its effect on oral health outcomes by DMFT, controlling for socio-economic position and health behaviour determinants. Religiosity was determined and validated by self-definition. Social support was assessed by the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Spirituality was estimated by the Hebrew version of the SpREUK Questionnaire for Religiosity, Spirituality and Health. The mean caries experience (DMFT) was 10.75. Secular people revealed significantly higher DMFT than their religious and orthodox counterparts (78.0 vs. 43.9 and 39.3%, respectively, p < 0.01). A conceptual logistic regression model revealed a possible pathway, wherein a higher level of religiosity was distally associated with superior dental health outcomes, mediated by high spirituality, strong social support and positive oral health behaviours. The present study identified a strong statistical association between caries experience and religiosity. The direction of the association suggested that being religious had a protective effect on caries experience. Our conceptual hierarchical approach suggests a pathway to explain the association between the level of religiosity and dental caries experience. In this study this association was mediated by extrinsic (i.e. social support) and intrinsic (i.e. spirituality) pathways.
本研究旨在评估宗教信仰与龋齿之间的关系，以及口腔健康相关行为、精神信仰和社会支持是否包含在解释宗教信仰与龋齿之间关联的潜在途径中。本横断面研究采用分层抽样方法，根据宗教信仰水平（33.1%世俗、33.1%宗教、33.9%正统），对耶路撒冷的 254 名犹太成年人进行了研究。目的是通过 DMFT 检查宗教信仰、精神信仰和社会支持之间的途径及其对口腔健康结果的影响，同时控制社会经济地位和健康行为决定因素。宗教信仰通过自我定义确定和验证。社会支持通过多维感知社会支持量表进行评估。精神信仰通过希伯来语版 SpREUK 宗教、精神和健康问卷进行评估。平均龋齿经验（DMFT）为 10.75。世俗人群的 DMFT 明显高于其宗教和正统人群（分别为 78.0%、43.9%和 39.3%，p<0.01）。概念逻辑回归模型揭示了一种可能的途径，其中较高的宗教信仰水平与较高的口腔健康结果存在远程关联，这是通过较高的精神信仰、强大的社会支持和积极的口腔健康行为来介导的。本研究确定了龋齿经验与宗教信仰之间存在很强的统计学关联。关联的方向表明，宗教信仰对龋齿经验具有保护作用。我们的概念层次方法提出了一种解释宗教信仰水平与龋齿经验之间关联的途径。在这项研究中，这种关联是通过外在（即社会支持）和内在（即精神信仰）途径来介导的。
