Self‐rated oral and general health among Aboriginal adults in regional South Australia

• Published in: Australian dental journal Vol. 67; no. 2; pp. 132 - 137
• Main Authors: Parker, EJ, Mejia, G, Spencer, AJ, Roberts‐Thomson, KF, Haag, D, Jamieson, LM
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia 01-06-2022
• Subjects: Aboriginal; oral health; self‐rated health; self‐rated oral health; Aboriginal; oral health; self-rated oral health; self-rated health
• ISSN: 0045-0421; 1834-7819
• DOI: 10.1111/adj.12892

Background
In Australia, Aboriginal adults experience higher levels of poor oral and general health than the non‐Aboriginal population. This study compared self‐rated oral and general health among Aboriginal adults in regional South Australia with participants in the National Survey of Adult Oral Health (NSAOH).
Methods
Data were obtained from the Indigenous Oral Health Literacy Project (IOHLP) based in South Australia. Three sub‐populations from the NSAOH were utilised for comparison: National Aboriginal, National non‐Aboriginal and South Australian Regional Non‐Aboriginal adults. All data were standardised by age group and sex, utilising Census data.
Results
Just over 70% of South Australian Regional Aboriginal participants gave a rating of ‘excellent, very good or good’ for general health, more than 17% lower than each of the other groups. Just over 50% rated their oral health highly, 20% fewer than the proportion for each other group. Stratifying by key socio‐demographic factors did not account for all differences.
Conclusions
Proportionally fewer South Australian Regional Aboriginal adults had high ratings of oral and general health than the Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal adults from the national survey, indicating that national‐level data might underestimate the proportion of regional Aboriginal Australians with poor oral health.