School of Kinesiology & Health Science, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, Canada.
Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
BMC Oral Health. 2019 May 8;19(1):78. doi: 10.1186/s12903-019-0773-x.
Ontario is home to the largest number of immigrants in Canada. However, very little is known about their dental care utilization patterns. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of poor dental health care use among the immigrant population of Ontario and how various socio-demographic, socio-economic and health-related factors are associated with it.
Analysis was performed on a total of 4208 Ontarian immigrants who participated in the dental care module of the 2014 cycle of the Canadian Community Health Survey. Poor dental care use was defined by the two variables: not visiting the dentist in the past year and/or visiting the dentist only for emergency purposes. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to assess the associations between the two outcomes and the socio-demographic, socio-economic and health-related factors.
Thirty three percent of immigrants reported not visiting the dentist in the past year and 25% reported visiting only for emergencies. The leading components associated with poor dental care utilization were being a new immigrant, of male gender, having low educational attainment, low household income and lacking dental insurance.
This study is the first to highlight oral health care use patterns amongst immigrants in Ontario. Given that a large proportion of the immigrant population in Ontario have poor dental care use, education and outreach programs informing incoming immigrants of preventative dental care may improve overall dental health.
安大略省是加拿大移民数量最多的省份。然而，对于他们的牙科保健利用模式，我们知之甚少。本研究的目的是确定安大略省移民群体中不良牙科保健利用的流行程度，以及各种社会人口统计学、社会经济学和健康相关因素与之相关的程度。
对 2014 年加拿大社区健康调查周期中参与牙科保健模块的 4208 名安大略省移民进行了分析。不良牙科保健利用由两个变量定义：过去一年未看牙医和/或仅因紧急情况看牙医。采用多变量逻辑回归评估两个结果与社会人口统计学、社会经济学和健康相关因素之间的关联。
33%的移民报告过去一年未看牙医，25%的移民报告仅因紧急情况看牙医。与不良牙科保健利用相关的主要因素是新移民、男性、教育程度低、家庭收入低和缺乏牙科保险。
本研究首次强调了安大略省移民的口腔保健利用模式。鉴于安大略省的移民人口中有很大一部分人不良牙科保健利用率较高，向新移民宣传预防性牙科保健的教育和外展计划可能会改善整体口腔健康。
