Does the deterioration of social determinants of health worsen oral health and further worsen the other health?: natural experiment study

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K18820
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 57080:Social dentistry-related
• Research Institution: National Institute of Public Health (2021-2022); Tohoku University (2020)
• Principal Investigator: Yamamoto Takafumi 国立保健医療科学院, その他部局等, 主任研究官 (10850612)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 災害疫学 / 口腔の健康 / 因果推論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The research conducted to date on this research project has shown three things. First, although the damage to houses caused by the disaster worsens overall health, social participation can mitigate this effect. Furthermore, the study revealed that dental visits associated with the deterioration of oral health due to the disaster might have been caused directly or indirectly by the relocation of disaster victims. In addition, we found that the initiation of denture use was associated with a subsequent decrease in BMI of 2 or more (note that this was only reported in the body of the report). This suggests that a series of events may have occurred, such as disaster, relocation, change in the build environment, change in oral health, and change in general health.

Free Research Field

歯科口腔保健

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

災害疫学領域の研究成果は全体としてもまだ少なく、それは口腔領域においても同様である。本研究成果は災害歯科疫学研究の基礎的な研究であり、今後の当該領域における研究の推進に貢献しうる。それだけでなく、本研究は医療受診をテーマにしているため、持続可能な歯科医療提供システムの構築を検討する上でも有用な基礎資料となる可能性がある（本研究は被災によって、医療アクセスの悪い地域から医療アクセスのよい都市の中心部への強制的な転居経験に着目した分析を実施しているため）。