Oral health beliefs, attitudes, and practices of migrants from South Asia
Citation: Batra M, Gupta S, Erbas B. Oral health beliefs, attitudes, and practices of South Asian migrants: a systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019;16(11):1952.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: The authors reported that they had no external funding for this review.
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for articles related to oral health knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, practices, or behaviours of South Asian migrants, aged 18 years or older, in high-income countries. They searched in January 2019 for articles published in English and found 17 articles (12 quantitative and 5 qualitative). Most studies were from the UK.
What was found: The knowledge of oral health among South Asians in high-income countries was variable. Oral hygiene practices were influenced by culture, religious customs, and beliefs. Toothbrushing was widespread, with younger South Asians more likely to brush regularly. Barriers to oral health care varied according to country of origin and included being female, lack of trust in the dentist, language difficulties, perceived cost of treatments, and the sex of the practitioner.
Implications: While there is no single solution to oral health issues among migrant communities, the authors suggested that oral health education directed at women from South Asia may be a good start to improve health.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of place of residence, ethnicity, culture, language, gender, socioeconomic status, education, age, and religion.
This summary was prepared by Joly Ghanawi, checked by Grace Meng, and finalized by Anne-Marie Glenny.