(Press-News.org) A new research project from the University of Copenhagen has established an effective model for the fight against the escalating burden of tooth decay among children in Asia. The model is an important tool in breaking the social inequity in oral health of children.
In developing countries, the number of children who suffer pain and discomfort in addition to missing out on school lessons is increasing. This project demonstrates that the school is a vital key to better oral health. The project also shows how it is possible to organize school oral health intervention, including health promotion and disease prevention for all, in a low-income country in Asia such as Thailand.
The research results are just published in the latest issue of the public health journal Community Dental Health
Oral health in Asia
The research project - based on the WHO Health Promoting Schools concept - focused on increasing the awareness of the importance of oral health among children, families, and schoolteachers in order to develop a healthy school environment, a healthy diet, regular dental care habits in young children and the use of effective fluoridated toothpaste.
Tooth decay is surprisingly high among schoolchildren in Thailand and primarily related to poor living conditions, the high intake of sugars, weak traditions of oral hygiene, low exposure to fluoride for disease prevention, as well as poor availability and accessibility of preventive dental health services.
"It is of vital importance that we learn more about the most effective ways of resolving the health problems, and this project emphasizes the necessity of engaging the school as well as family and schoolteachers", says lead researcher Professor Poul Erik Petersen, from the School of Dentistry, Department for Global Oral Health and Community Dentistry at the University of Copenhagen. "The results of the school programme are impressive with a reduction of 41% in new lesions of tooth decay."
The study was based on a community trial conducted in the Songkla Province in Thailand and involved fifteen schools with a total of 3,706 pre-school students. The two-year study assessed the benefits of an enhanced oral health promotion programme, which included closely supervised tooth brushing with an effective toothpaste containing 1,450 ppm fluoride, compared to customary oral hygiene procedures.
Future school health programmes
The results will hopefully assist Ministries of Health, public health administrators and oral health planners in low and middle-income countries in the Asian region in designing evidence based school health programmes. The experience gained from the research project could also offer new insight into the global fight against poor oral health in children.
"Globally, very few school health programmes are evaluated scientifically. This research project has provided sound information and will thus contribute to the promotion of preventive measures in school oral health programmes," Poul Erik Petersen concludes.
INFORMATION:
(March 19, 2015, Abu Dhabi, UAE) -The Tobacco Atlas, Fifth Edition ("The Atlas"), and its companion mobile app and website TobaccoAtlas.org, were unveiled today by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation at the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health. The Atlas graphically details the scale of the tobacco epidemic; the harmful influence of tobacco on health, poverty, social justice, and the environment; the progress being made in tobacco control; and the latest products and tactics being used by the industry to protect its profits and delay and derail tobacco ...
When patients develop acute liver failure, severe complications arise rapidly after the first signs of liver disease, and patients' health can deteriorate rapidly. New research published in the American Journal of Transplantation indicates that emergency evaluations of living liver donors can be conducted safely to allow acute liver failure patients to undergo transplantation before their condition worsens.
If untreated, acute liver failure results in coma and death in more than 80 percent of cases. The only effective therapy is liver transplantation, but the deceased ...
A Los Angeles ordinance designed to curb obesity in low-income areas by restricting the opening of new fast-food restaurants has failed to reduce fast-food consumption or reduce obesity rates in the targeted neighborhoods, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Since the fast-food restrictions were passed in 2008, overweight and obesity rates in South Los Angeles and other neighborhoods targeted by the law have increased faster than in other parts of the city or other parts of the county, according to findings published online by the journal Social Science & Medicine.
"The ...
Using melatonin could provide more and better quality sleep compared to using an eye mask and earplugs in a simulated noisy and illuminated environment, according to research published in open access journal Critical Care. This study was carried out on healthy subjects but could have future implications for intensive care unit (ICU) patients.
Melatonin is the hormone secreted by the body to regulate sleep, usually in periods of darkness. Synthetically produced melatonin is used to boost the body's own melatonin levels to treat some sleep disorders, and sometimes as a ...
The number of people living with cystic fibrosis into adulthood is expected to increase dramatically by 2025, prompting calls for the development of adult cystic fibrosis services to meet the demand.
People living with cystic fibrosis have previously had low life expectancy, but improvements in treatments and care in the last three decades have led to an increase in survival with almost all children now living to around 40 years.
In the first study of its kind, published in the European Respiratory Journal today (19 March 2015), researchers have provided forecasts ...
Introduction of standardised packaging for tobacco products in Australia prompted more smokers to think about quitting and to attempt to quit, show findings of surveys of adults smokers published in Tobacco Control.
In introducing standardised tobacco packaging with large graphic health warnings in December 2012, the Australian government's main aim was to reduce the attractiveness and appeal of tobacco products to young people and so reduce the likelihood of them taking up smoking.
In other studies the researchers from Melbourne in Victoria found that standardised ...
New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that in women who have developed gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) during pregnancy, being obese before the pregnancy and putting on more weight after it massively increases the risk of later developing type 2 diabetes (T2D).
For women who are obese before pregnancy (BMI 30 or higher) and put on 5 kg or more after giving birth, the risk of developing T2D is 43 times higher than for women who remain lean before pregnancy and gain 5 kg or less. The research, ...
A phase 3 trial of brentuximab vedotin (BV), the first new drug for Hodgkin lymphoma in over 30 years, shows that adults with hard-to-treat Hodgkin lymphoma given BV immediately after stem cell transplant survived without the disease progressing for twice as long as those given placebo (43 months vs 24 months).
The findings, published in The Lancet, are potentially practice changing for this young cancer population who have exhausted other treatment options and for whom prognosis is poor.
"No medication available today has had such dramatic results in patients with ...
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Malaria kills a child every minute. While medical researchers have successfully developed effective drugs to kill the malaria parasite, efforts to treat the effects of the disease have not been as successful. But that soon may change.
In a groundbreaking study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Michigan State University's Dr. Terrie Taylor and her team discovered what causes death in children with cerebral malaria, the deadliest form of the disease.
"We discovered that some children with cerebral malaria develop massively swollen ...
Fast Facts
Drug companies have made incremental improvements that kept insulin under patent for more than 90 years.
Insulin can cost $120 to $400 per month for patients with no prescription drug coverage.
Many patients with diabetes have lapses in medication that can lead to serious complications requiring hospitalization.
A generic version of insulin, the lifesaving diabetes drug used by 6 million people in the United States, has never been available in this country because drug companies have made incremental improvements that kept insulin under patent from ...
