"Education level" responsible for inequities in oral practices among 15-34-year-old individuals in Jizan, Saudi Arabia

Urban and rural disparity in tobacco use and knowledge about oral cancer among adolescents: An epidemiological survey on 12 and 15-year school going students

Aims and Objectives:

To assess and compare the tobacco use prevalence; to understand and compare attitudes and knowledge related to tobacco use and its health impact among urban and rural students; and to assess urban and rural disparity in the use of tobacco among 12 and 15-year-old adolescents in the urban and rural schools in Chhattisgarh, India.

Materials and Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 12 and 15-year-old and urban and rural school going children in Durg District. Scientifically, based on the data obtained from the pilot study, sample size was calculated. A total of 1000 children were selected to be a part of the study and were interviewed face-to-face using a detailed pretested, close-ended questionnaire. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16.0 (SPSS Pvt. Ltd, Chicago, IL, USA) was used for the statistical analyses.

Results:

Prevalence of tobacco consumption was 48.8%. Males were involved predominantly in consuming tobacco. The knowledge and attitude was better in the school children of urban areas than the school children of rural areas; more of the urban school children were involved in smoking cigarette. Rural children outnumbered urban children in the smokeless tobacco consumption.

Conclusion:

Prevalence of tobacco consumption among school children remains high with a wide disparity among urban and rural children. There is an urgent need to have a rural orientation in the National Tobacco Control Program that is currently being developed by the Government of India and giving relevance to the youth.

Influence of oral hygiene and its interaction with standard of education on the risk of oral cancer in women who neither smoked nor drank alcohol: a hospital-based, case-control study

We know of only limited data about the role of oral hygiene and the risk of oral cancer with different standards of education. The aim of this study was to assess the association between oral hygiene and risk of oral cancer, with stratification by standard of education, in Chinese women. We organised a case-control study with 250 women with oral cancer and 996 age-matched controls in Fujian, China. Data were collected by personal interview using a structured questionnaire. We used unconditional logistic regression with stratification by educational standard to estimate the odds ratios (OR) and 95% CI. Tooth-brushing twice a day or more was inversely related to the risk of oral cancer in women with high school education or above (OR 0.50; 95% CI 0.25 to 0.98), but not in those who were illiterate or had primary-middle school education. Wearing dentures showed an increased risk only in less well-educated women: the OR were 2.23 (95% CI 1.14 to 4.34) for the illiterate and 1.68 (95% CI 1.08 to 2.62) for the primary-middle school group. The loss of more than five teeth and oral ulceration were associated with increased risks of oral cancer in all three groups. There was also a multiplicative interaction between oral hygiene and standard of education for risk of oral cancer (p=0.001). Our results suggest that oral hygiene seems to have a critical role in the risk of oral cancer in Chinese women, but this effect may be modified by their educational standard.