School of Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
School of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
PLoS One. 2019 Jun 20;14(6):e0218678. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218678. eCollection 2019.
Adaptation to social life changes after migration may be beneficial or detrimental to migrants' oral health outcomes and related behaviors. This systematic review aims to synthesize the scientific literature on the impact of social support on immigrants' and ethnic minorities' oral health status and/or behaviors.
A comprehensive electronic search, up to November 2018, was conducted using five electronic databases. We included cross-sectional and longitudinal quantitative studies that examine associations between social support and oral health outcomes among immigrants and ethnic minorities. Study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment were completed in duplicate and the Newcastle-Ottawa checklist was used to appraise the methodological quality of the quantitative studies.
A total of 26 studies met the eligibility criteria. Included studies examined multiple oral health outcomes such as dental care utilization, oral health behaviors, oral health problems, self-rated oral health, oral health knowledge, and oral health-related quality of life among immigrants and ethnic minorities. The social support level is assessed either by social support indicators or by adapting certain scales. Overall, social support was found to be positively associated with dental care utilization, number of carious teeth, periodontal disease, oral health behaviors, oral health knowledge, oral health-related quality of life, and self-rated oral health.
Although immigrants and ethnic minorities encounter several challenges after migration to a new country that could affect their oral health, social support from their surrounding environment in the form of structural or functional support plays an important role in improving their oral health outcomes.
移民后适应社会生活的变化可能对移民的口腔健康结果和相关行为有益或有害。本系统评价旨在综合有关社会支持对移民和少数族裔口腔健康状况和/或行为影响的科学文献。
我们使用五个电子数据库，全面检索了截至 2018 年 11 月的电子文献。我们纳入了横断面和纵向定量研究，这些研究考察了社会支持与移民和少数族裔的口腔健康结果之间的关联。研究选择、数据提取和偏倚风险评估均由两人独立完成，并使用纽卡斯尔-渥太华量表评估定量研究的方法学质量。
共有 26 项研究符合入选标准。纳入的研究考察了多种口腔健康结果，如牙科保健利用、口腔健康行为、口腔健康问题、自我报告的口腔健康、口腔健康知识和口腔健康相关生活质量等，社会支持水平通过社会支持指标或通过适应某些量表来评估。总体而言，社会支持与牙科保健利用、龋齿数量、牙周病、口腔健康行为、口腔健康知识、口腔健康相关生活质量和自我报告的口腔健康呈正相关。
尽管移民和少数民族在移民到新国家后面临着一些可能影响其口腔健康的挑战，但来自周围环境的社会支持（以结构或功能支持的形式）在改善他们的口腔健康结果方面起着重要作用。
