Matsuo Go, Rozier R Gary, Kranz Ashley M
At the time of the study, Go Matsuo was with the Oral Health Section, Division of Public Health, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh. R. Gary Rozier is with the Department of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Ashley M. Kranz is with the School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Am J Public Health. 2015 Dec;105(12):2503-9. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302884. Epub 2015 Oct 15.
We examined racial/ethnic disparities in dental caries among kindergarten students in North Carolina and the cross-level effects between students' race/ethnicity and school poverty status.
We adjusted the analysis of oral health surveillance information (2009-2010) for individual-, school-, and county-level variables. We included a cross-level interaction of student's race/ethnicity (White, Black, Hispanic) and school National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participation (< 75% vs ≥ 75% of students), which we used as a compositional school-level variable measuring poverty among families of enrolled students.
Among 70,089 students in 1067 schools in 95 counties, the prevalence of dental caries was 30.4% for White, 39.0% for Black, and 51.7% for Hispanic students. The adjusted difference in caries experience between Black and White students was significantly greater in schools with NSLP participation of less than 75%.
Racial/ethnic oral health disparities exist among kindergarten students in North Carolina as a whole and regardless of school's poverty status. Furthermore, disparities between White and Black students are larger in nonpoor schools than in poor schools. Further studies are needed to explore causal pathways that might lead to these disparities.
我们研究了北卡罗来纳州幼儿园学生龋齿方面的种族/民族差异，以及学生种族/民族与学校贫困状况之间的交叉层面影响。
我们针对个体、学校和县级变量对口腔健康监测信息（2009 - 2010年）分析进行了调整。我们纳入了学生种族/民族（白人、黑人、西班牙裔）与学校国家学校午餐计划（NSLP）参与情况（学生参与率<75%与≥75%）的交叉层面交互作用，我们将NSLP参与情况用作衡量在校学生家庭贫困程度的学校层面构成变量。
在95个县1067所学校的70089名学生中，白人学生龋齿患病率为30.4%，黑人学生为39.0%，西班牙裔学生为51.7%。在NSLP参与率低于75%的学校中，黑人和白人学生龋齿经历的调整差异显著更大。
北卡罗来纳州整体上幼儿园学生存在种族/民族口腔健康差异，且与学校贫困状况无关。此外，非贫困学校中白人和黑人学生之间的差异比贫困学校更大。需要进一步研究来探索可能导致这些差异的因果途径。
