A study was recently published on geo-mapping the risk of childhood caries across low socioeconomic populations over a significant period of time.[1] With a high need to conveniently monitor these national demographics, the goal is to formulate a system that identifies areas with the greatest need for oral health resources by analyzing trends and changes in their risk for childhood caries. A general overview of this study is as follows:
- Background: study was conducted by analyzing epidemiological data from preschool residents in Halland, Sweden.
- Method(s): population consisted of 9,973 children in 2006, and 10,927 children in 2010 between 3 and 6 years of age; each participant was geo-coded with respect to his or her residence parish; used software to produce smoothed caries risk geo-maps with corresponding statistical certainty geo-maps.
- Result(s): overall proportion of caries-free children improved from 84.0% in 2006 to 88.6% in 2010.
In conclusion, geo-mapping caries risk provides an effective and convenient way to allocate preventive resources to children in low socioeconomic populations. Additional information: course abstract, full article (pdf)
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