Espinoza Alex, Hayes Donald K, Uehara Sarah, Mattheus Deborah, Domagalski Jennifer
Health Resource and Services Administration, Graduate Student Epidemiology Program; Rockville, MD (AE).
Houston Health Department, Bureau of Epidemiology; Houston, TX (AE).
Hawaii J Med Public Health. 2019 Feb;78(2):44-51.
Risk behaviors are known to adversely affect health outcomes, but the relationship between youth risk behaviors and oral health remains unclear. The objective of this study is to examine the likelihood of dental visiting among Hawai'i public high school students by demographic factors and number of adverse risk behaviors. Aggregated 2013 and 2015 Hawai'i public high school Youth Risk and Behavior Survey (YRBS) data was analyzed from 10,720 students. Results showed that, overall, 77.1% of students reported a dental visit in the past 12 months. Students who were ages 15, 16, 17, and ≥ 18 years old were less likely than students who were ≤ 14 years old to visit a dentist. Those who identified as Hispanic, Native Hawaiian, Filipino, Other Pacific Islander, and students who identified as more than one race/ethnicity were less likely to visit the dentist than their white counterparts. In addition, students having either 4 risk behaviors or ≥ 5 risk behaviors were less likely to report a dental visit than those with no risk behaviors. These findings support the presence of disparities in oral health care utilization among high school students in Hawai'i and reveal a significant association between age, number of risk behaviors, and race/ethnicity with the likelihood of utilizing dental services. Oral health programs should consider screening for risk factors and multiple risk behaviors, integrating with other health programs that share similar risk behaviors, and account for cultural differences in their development, implementation, and evaluation.
已知风险行为会对健康结果产生不利影响，但青少年风险行为与口腔健康之间的关系仍不明确。本研究的目的是通过人口统计学因素和不良风险行为的数量来检验夏威夷公立高中学生看牙的可能性。对2013年和2015年夏威夷公立高中青少年风险与行为调查（YRBS）汇总数据进行了分析，涉及10720名学生。结果显示，总体而言，77.1%的学生报告在过去12个月内看过牙。15岁、16岁、17岁及≥18岁的学生比≤14岁的学生看牙的可能性更小。那些自认为是西班牙裔、夏威夷原住民、菲律宾人、其他太平洋岛民以及自认为属于多个种族/族裔的学生比白人学生看牙的可能性更小。此外，有4种风险行为或≥5种风险行为的学生比没有风险行为的学生看牙的可能性更小。这些发现支持了夏威夷高中生在口腔保健利用方面存在差异，并揭示了年龄、风险行为数量和种族/族裔与利用牙科服务可能性之间的显著关联。口腔健康项目应考虑筛查风险因素和多种风险行为，与具有相似风险行为的其他健康项目相结合，并在其制定、实施和评估中考虑文化差异。
