Aubrey Sheiham

Background and objectives: To assess whether the clustering of six specific health-compromising behaviors, namely, low fruit consumption, high sweet consumption, infrequent tooth brushing, physical inactivity, fighting and smoking, varied by different psychosocial determinants such as life satisfaction, peer relationships, self-confidence, and future orientation among male adolescents in Saudi Arabia. Patients and methods: A representative stratified cluster random sample of 1335 Saudi Arabian male adolescents living in the city of Riyadh answered a questionnaire on health-related behaviors. Poisson regression models were constructed separately for younger (13-14-years-old) and older (17-19-years- old) adolescents to assess variations between explanatory psychosocial variables and the clustering of six health-compromising behaviors, adjusting for father's education. Results: Older adolescents who perceived high levels of life satisfaction had a lower rate of clustering of multiple health-compromising behaviors compared to those reporting lower levels (RR: 1.22; 95%CI: 1.09–1.37), and the respective difference between those with high and those with middle levels of satisfaction was marginally non-significant (RR: 1.08; 95%CI: 0.98–1.19). Younger adolescents who reported that they felt "less than always” self-confident were more likely to have high clustering of health compromising behaviors compared to those who were always confident (RR: 1.08; 95%CI: 1.01–1.21). The clustering of multiple health-compromising behaviors was marginally associated with the frequency of evening meetings among older adolescents (RR: 1.03; 95%CI: 1.01–1.04 for each extra meeting), while the respective association among younger adolescents was marginally non-significant (RR: 1.02; 95%CI: 0.99–1.05). The association between clustering of health-compromising behaviors and future orientation was non-significant among both younger and older adolescents. Conclusions: Clustering of health-compromising behaviors was found to be associated with perceived life satisfaction and peer relationships among older male Saudi adolescents and with self-confidence among younger male Saudi adolescents in Riyadh.

This study assessed clustering of three health-compromising behaviours and explored the association of neighbourhood and individual social capital with simultaneous health-compromising behaviours and patterns of those behaviours in women in the first trimester of pregnancy (baseline) and during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy (follow-up). A longitudinal study was conducted on a representative sample of women recruited in antenatal care units grouped in 46 neighbourhoods from Brazil. Neighbourhood-level measures (social capital and socioeconomic status), individual social capital (social support and social networks) and socio-demographic variables were collected at baseline. Smoking, alcohol consumption and inadequate diet were assessed at baseline and follow-up. Clustering was assessed using an observed to expected ratio method. The association of contextual and individual social capital with the health-compromising behaviours outcomes was analyzed through multilevel multivariate regression models. Clustering of the three health-compromising behaviours as well as of smoking and alcohol consumption were identified at both baseline and follow-up periods. Neighbourhood social capital did not influence the occurrence of simultaneous health-compromising behaviours. More health-compromising behaviours in both periods was inversely associated with low levels of individual social capital. Low individual social capital predicted smoking during whole pregnancy, while high individual social capital increased the likelihood of stopping smoking and improving diet during pregnancy. Maintaining an inadequate diet during pregnancy was influenced by low individual and neighbourhood social capital. Three health-compromising behaviours are relatively common and cluster in Brazilian women throughout pregnancy. Low individual social capital significantly predicted simultaneous health-compromising behaviours and patterns of smoking and inadequate diet during pregnancy while low neighbourhood social capital was only relevant for inadequate diet. These findings suggest that interventions focusing on reducing multiple behaviours should be part of antenatal care throughout pregnancy. Individual and contextual social resources should be considered when planning the interventions.

The importance of sugars as a cause of caries is underemphasized and not prominent in preventive strategies. This is despite overwhelming evidence of its unique role in causing a worldwide caries epidemic. Why this neglect? One reason is that researchers mistakenly consider caries to be a multifactorial disease; they also concentrate mainly on mitigating factors, particularly fluoride. However, this is to misunderstand that the only cause of caries is dietary sugars. These provide a substrate for cariogenic oral bacteria to flourish and to generate enamel-demineralizing acids. Modifying factors such as fluoride and dental hygiene would not be needed if we tackled the single cause—sugars. In this article, we demonstrate the sensitivity of cariogenesis to even very low sugars intakes. Quantitative analyses show a log-linear dose-response relationship between the sucrose or its monosaccharide intakes and the progressive lifelong development of caries. This results in a substantial dental health burden throughout life. Processed starches have cariogenic potential when accompanying sucrose, but human studies do not provide unequivocal data of their cariogenicity. The long-standing failure to identify the need for drastic national reductions in sugars intakes reflects scientific confusion partly induced by pressure from major industrial sugar interests.

Dentistry is facing many serious challenges and threats. Addressing them will require major changes in strategy. This work outlines the extent of dental disease in the Africa and Middle East Region (AMER) and suggests strategies to reduce inequalities in oral health. The main oral health challenges in the AMER relate to controlling the relentless increase in caries with age. A very conservative estimate of population caries levels suggests that a 5-fold increase in dental personnel would be required just to treat current levels of caries. Hence, we argue that current approaches to control caries in the AMER are both ineffective and unaffordable, and a new model to promote oral health is needed. Unless determinants of noncommunicable diseases are addressed and access to evidence-based minimal intervention dental care is improved, the burden of dental disease will persist. The new oral health promotion model calls for an integrated intersectoral common risk factor approach, namely, “oral health in all policies” (OHiAP). An OHiAP framework will initiate high-level policy initiatives and intersectoral partnerships. Oral health professionals have an important advocacy role in securing the fundamental changes in health strategy needed to control the growing, unjust, and unaffordable burden of oral disease.

This study assessed the extent of household catastrophic expenditure in dental health care and its possible determinants in 41 low and middle income countries. Data from 182,007 respondents aged 18 years and over (69,315 in 18 low income countries, 59,645 in 15 lower middle income countries and 53,047 in 8 upper middle income countries) who participated in the WHO World Health Survey (WHS) were analyzed. Expenditure in dental health care was defined as catastrophic if it was equal to or higher than 40% of the household capacity to pay. A number of individual and country-level factors were assessed as potential determinants of catastrophic dental health expenditure (CDHE) in multilevel logistic regression with individuals nested within countries. Up to 7% of households in low and middle income countries faced CDHE in the last 4 weeks. This proportion rose up to 35% among households that incurred some dental health expenditure within the same period. The multilevel model showed that wealthier, urban and larger households and more economically developed countries had higher odds of facing CDHE. The results of this study show that payments for dental health care can be a considerable burden on households, to the extent of preventing expenditure on basic necessities. They also help characterize households more likely to incur catastrophic expenditure on dental health care. Alternative health care financing strategies and policies targeted to improve fairness in financial contribution are urgently required in low and middle income countries.

The traditional measure for assessing dental treatment needs and workforce requirements based solely on normative need (NN) has major shortcomings. The sociodental approach (SDA) to assess needs overcomes some of the shortcomings as it combines normative and subjective needs assessments and also incorporates behavioural propensity (Sheiham and Tsakos 2007). The objective of this study was to estimate and compare prosthodontic treatment needs and workforce requirements, using the normative and the sociodental approaches for different skill mix models. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 732 university employees aged 30–54 years. Normative prosthodontic need was assessed using the WHO (1997) method. The SDA includes NN and also considers oral impacts, measured through the OIDP index, and behavioural propensity. Estimates of prosthodontic need and dental workforce requirements using the two methods were compared using McNemar and Wilcoxon Signed Rank test respectively. The dental workforce required for prosthodontic treatment based on NN and SDA approaches were then compared using different workforce skill mix models. The proportion of subjects needing prosthodontic treatment was lower by more than 90% when the SDA was used compared to NN. The number of dentists required for prosthodontic treatment per 100,000 people were 98.8 using NN compared to 2.49 using SDA. Using a skill mix approach, the requirements for dentists per 100,000 people decreased slightly when more denture procedures were delegated to dental therapists. There were very much lower levels of prosthodontic treatment needs and workforce requirements when using the sociodental approach compared to normative methods.

Television viewing has been implicated as a possible risk factor for the increase in a number of chronic diseases, particularly those related to sedentary life style. Given the rapid economic and societal changes in China over the past few decades, this study aimed to examine the association between dental caries experience and television viewing among Chinese adolescents. This study utilized data pertaining to the province of Guangxi from the 2010 National Physical Fitness and Health Surveillance, a national survey of school children and adolescents in China. The survey used stratified sampling methods. Four experienced dentists conducted the clinical examination in each province. The survey included data on socio-demographic and behavioural factors including television viewing and a clinical dental examination. Regression models were used to examine the association between time spent viewing television and mean DMFT and untreated caries among 12–17 year-old adolescents, adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, area of residence, and markers of dietary habits. The prevalence of caries in this sample was 52.3%. Longer duration of television viewing was significantly and consistently associated with greater number for decayed teeth and higher DMFT among Chinese adolescents. The relationship persisted even after adjusting for demographic and behavioural factors. Being female, living in rural area, being of Zhuang ethnicity were all significantly associated with higher levels of dental caries. This study showed, for the first time in China, that television viewing is associated with risk of developing dental caries among adolescents. Future research should examine potential pathways linking television viewing and dental caries among Chinese adolescents.