School of Public Health, Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya.
Centre for Public Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
Pan Afr Med J. 2023 Jul 14;45:125. doi: 10.11604/pamj.2023.45.125.37365. eCollection 2023.
the need for age assessment remains relevant due to unregistered births or lack of identification documents as a result of political and socioeconomic conflicts. Dentists play a significant role in age assessment. In order to establish the need for capacity building and collaboration, the study set out to determine the proportion of dental patients referred for age assessment and their sources of referral.
a cross-sectional study, based on 5-year records (2014-2018) of dental patients and a selected sample of 316 patients who visited for age assessment in 2019-2020 in the same hospitals. The study centers were 8 county hospitals. Variables included gender, dental visits, health facility, and sources of referral. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Fisher´s Exact test were used to identify a significant association between variables.
from the records, 12,738 (5.7%) patients sought age assessment services. Females 6,410 (50.3%) and males 6,328 (49.7%) were nearly equal. There was a statistically significant difference in the average number of patients who required age assessment services from different facilities, p=0.000. The selected sample comprised of 186 (58.9%) and 130 (41.1%) males and females respectively. Sources of referral included; court of law (267, 84.5%), prior to acquiring identification documents (47, 14.9%), and others (2, 0.6%).
an average of 5% of dental patients seek age assessment services signifying the need for sustained capacity building so as to ensure competent service delivery. The majority of the sampled patients were referrals from the court of law. Further research on how the dental fraternity can collaborate with the Judiciary to ensure justice in age disputes is recommended.
由于政治和社会经济冲突导致未登记的出生或缺乏身份证明文件，因此仍然需要进行年龄评估。牙医在年龄评估中发挥着重要作用。为了确定能力建设和合作的需求，本研究旨在确定因年龄评估而转诊的牙科患者的比例及其转诊来源。
这是一项基于 2014 年至 2018 年五年期间（2014-2018 年）牙科患者记录和 2019 年至 2020 年在同一医院接受年龄评估的 316 名患者的随机抽样记录的横断面研究。研究中心是 8 家县医院。变量包括性别、牙科就诊、卫生机构和转诊来源。使用单因素方差分析（ANOVA）和 Fisher 精确检验来确定变量之间的显著关联。
从记录中发现，有 12738 名（5.7%）患者寻求年龄评估服务。女性 6410 名（50.3%）和男性 6328 名（49.7%）几乎相等。不同医疗机构需要年龄评估服务的患者平均数量存在统计学差异，p=0.000。所选样本包括 186 名（58.9%）和 130 名（41.1%）男性和女性。转诊来源包括：法院（267 人，84.5%）、在获得身份证明文件之前（47 人，14.9%）和其他（2 人，0.6%）。
平均有 5%的牙科患者寻求年龄评估服务，这表明需要持续进行能力建设，以确保提供有能力的服务。抽样患者中的大多数来自法院的转诊。建议进一步研究牙科专业人员如何与司法机构合作，以确保在年龄纠纷中实现公正。
