Oral health among migrants in Europe
Citation: Pabbla A, Duijster D, Grasveld A, Sekundo C, Agyemang C, van der Heijden G. Oral Health Status, Oral Health Behaviours and Oral Health Care Utilisation Among Migrants Residing in Europe: A Systematic Review. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. 2020;23(2):373-88.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Amsterdam Public Health research institute.
What is this? Information about migrant’s oral health and use of relevant healthcare services might be helpful to policy makers, practitioners and the public.
In this systematic review, the authors searched for studies of oral health status, oral health behaviours or attitudes, and use of oral health care among migrants in Europe. They restricted their searches to articles published since 2000 and did the search up to October 2019. They included 69 studies, which were from Austria (1 study), Denmark (2), Germany (10), Greece (2), Italy (5), the Netherlands (2), Norway (5), Spain (4), Sweden (9) and the UK (29).
What was found: Prevalence of dental caries was higher among migrant children than host country children.
Oral cancer was more common among South Asian communities than host populations and other migrant groups.
Chewing tobacco was predominantly reported to be higher among Bangladeshi and Muslim South Asian communities.
Migrants generally demonstrated poor oral health behaviour compared to host populations, and Muslim South Asian migrants had poorer oral health behaviours compared to non-Muslim South Asian migrants.
Migrants used emergency dental services more than the host population but used preventative services less.
Implications: The authors of the review concluded that there is a need for oral health preventive strategies (including oral health promotion and education) for migrants in Europe and that a culturally sensitive approach is required when dealing with migrants’ oral health issues and when planning preventive programs and providing dental treatments for them.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of ethnicity, culture, age, sex, religion, education and socioeconomic status.
This summary was prepared by Nhi Luu, edited by Sydney Johnson and finalized by Mike Clarke.