Idowu Enoch Abiodun, Afolabi Adedapo Olanrewaju, Nwhator Solomon Olusegun
Faculty of Dentistry, University of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.
Department of Dentistry, Federal Medical Center, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria.
J Public Health Policy. 2016 May;37(2):226-43. doi: 10.1057/jphp.2016.10. Epub 2016 Mar 3.
We studied oral health knowledge and practices of 12 to 14-year-old Almajiri boys in northern Nigeria because we found few studies on their health, and none on their oral health. We present our study after explaining the desperate life circumstances and context of Nigeria's approximately 10 million Almajiri youth. Our results, when compared with those of previously studied populations (those most similar in terms of environment, age range, and oral health characteristics) show that the Almajiris fare poorly. Although the international community has paid some attention to the Nigerian Almajiri children's educational needs, there has been little support for health, and none for oral health. We argue that the World Health Organization could better assist Nigeria and these children by assuring that the Almajiris are not excluded from programs targeting children classified as 'street children', and make specific recommendations.
我们对尼日利亚北部12至14岁的阿尔马吉里男孩的口腔健康知识与行为进行了研究，因为我们发现针对他们健康状况的研究很少，而关于其口腔健康的研究则完全没有。在解释了尼日利亚约1000万阿尔马吉里青年绝望的生活状况和背景之后，我们展示了我们的研究。将我们的研究结果与先前研究的人群（在环境、年龄范围和口腔健康特征方面最相似的人群）的结果相比较，结果显示阿尔马吉里人的情况很差。尽管国际社会对尼日利亚阿尔马吉里儿童的教育需求给予了一些关注，但在健康方面几乎没有提供支持，在口腔健康方面则完全没有。我们认为，世界卫生组织可以通过确保阿尔马吉里儿童不被排除在针对“街头儿童”的项目之外，从而更好地协助尼日利亚和这些儿童，并提出了具体建议。
