Risk Indicators for Dental Caries in Three Scottish Prison Populations
type: CreativeWork
description: One of the markers of the socioeconomic inequalities faced by prisoners is their experience of poorer health outcomes, including higher dental caries experience, when compared to the general population. Whilst, as a whole, prisoners are disparate there are also vulnerable sub-populations, including women, young offenders, and the elderly. There is scope to inform future health improvement programmes by characterizing how caries experience and related risk factors vary between prisoner groups. The aims of this thesis were to (1) review the literature reporting caries amongst prisoners, and (2) assess the disease burden and associated risk indicators in a population of Scottish prisoners. Three data elements are reported: (i) a structured review with electronic searches of MEDLINE, Embase, Cinahl Plus, SCOPUS, PsychARTICLES, and ASSIA; (ii) selfreport data from a cross-sectional survey including measures for socio-demographics, medical and substance use history, dental anxiety (MDAS), mood (CES-D), and oral health-related attitudes and behaviours; and (iii) visual examination caries data which was evaluated using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) and converted to the decayed, missing filled (DMF) index. The oral health survey was completed in a non-probabilistic stratified sample of 298 prisoners, held in three Scottish prison establishments, representative of females, long-stay adult males, and male young offenders. From the 31 literature articles included, there were indications dental caries experience may have been historically underestimated since early stage incipient caries lesions were not routinely captured. The evidence predominantly centered on known risk factors for other health conditions in this population e.g. socioeconomic status, patterns of health service utilization and substance use. There is little empirical evidence for how risk factors for caries vary between prisoner groups. In the Scottish prisons surveyed, overa…
abstract: One of the markers of the socioeconomic inequalities faced by prisoners is their experience of poorer health outcomes, including higher dental caries experience, when compared to the general population. Whilst, as a whole, prisoners are disparate there are also vulnerable sub-populations, including women, young offenders, and the elderly. There is scope to inform future health improvement programmes by characterizing how caries experience and related risk factors vary between prisoner groups. The aims of this thesis were to (1) review the literature reporting caries amongst prisoners, and (2) assess the disease burden and associated risk indicators in a population of Scottish prisoners. Three data elements are reported: (i) a structured review with electronic searches of MEDLINE, Embase, Cinahl Plus, SCOPUS, PsychARTICLES, and ASSIA; (ii) selfreport data from a cross-sectional survey including measures for socio-demographics, medical and substance use history, dental anxiety (MDAS), mood (CES-D), and oral health-related attitudes and behaviours; and (iii) visual examination caries data which was evaluated using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) and converted to the decayed, missing filled (DMF) index. The oral health survey was completed in a non-probabilistic stratified sample of 298 prisoners, held in three Scottish prison establishments, representative of females, long-stay adult males, and male young offenders. From the 31 literature articles included, there were indications dental caries experience may have been historically underestimated since early stage incipient caries lesions were not routinely captured. The evidence predominantly centered on known risk factors for other health conditions in this population e.g. socioeconomic status, patterns of health service utilization and substance use. There is little empirical evidence for how risk factors for caries vary between prisoner groups. In the Scottish prisons surveyed, overa…
author: Akbar, Tahira
language: eng
date published: 2017
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:08:26Z
provider: University of Dundee
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Dundee