Oral health status among 12-year-old children in primary schools participating in an oral health preventive school program in Phnom Penh City, Cambodia, 2002.

A cross-sectional survey was undertaken to assess dental caries status, knowledge, attitude and practice in oral health among 12-year-old primary schoolchildren participating in the Oral Health Preventive School Program (OHPSP) conducted since 1998 in Phnom Penh City, Cambodia. Schools were stratified into 3 groups by levels of cooperation (good, partial, and poor) with the OHPS program and samples of schools randomly selected from each group. A total sample size of 239 schoolchildren was randomly selected from the sampled schools. There were 79, 82, and 79 children from schools with good, partial, and poor cooperation, respectively. Dental caries status DMFT (Decayed Missing Filled teeth) and knowledge, attitude and practices in oral health were assessed from 21 January to 5 February 2002. Opinions of school directors toward the OHPS Program were evaluated by interview. The results showed the overall mean DMFT per person in schoolchildren in Phnom Penh City, Cambodia of 2.33 (95%CI=2.05-2.61) while mean DT(Decayed teeth) was 2.31 (95%CI=1.97-2.52) and mean MT (Missing teeth) and mean FT (Filled teeth) were 0.01 per person, which were quite small. Children from schools with good cooperation with the OHPSP had the lowest significant mean DMFT 1.62 (95%CI=1.25-1.98) compared to children from schools with partial and poor cooperation (Mean DMFT=2.67:95%CI=2.10-3.23, and 2.69:95%CI=2.19-3.19, respectively). There were no significant differences in levels of knowledge, attitude and practices in oral health among the 3 groups of schools, but the proportion of good practices was highest in good cooperation schools compared to the schools with partial and poor cooperation to the OHPSP (41.3%, 27.3%, and 31.3%, respectively). Among 35 school directors, the majority of them (97.1%) believed that the OHPS program can reduce the dental caries prevalence among schoolchildren. Only 20.0% agreed that parents of schoolchildren should pay money to the school for tooth brushes and tooth paste of their children for brushing after lunch at school. The remaining answers were, they were uncertain (37.1%) and disagree (42.9%) that the school should have to manage that donated money. Among them, 82.9% reported that the OHPS Program activities did not disturb their time at school; 65% of them agreed there should be volunteers to help the schools in implementing the activities of the program. The majority of school directors (97.1%) thought that oral health examinations for schoolchildren were necessary. The results of the study suggested a need for continuous monitoring and strengthening of activities and cooperation of the Oral Health Preventive School Program among primary schools in Phnom Penh City to reduce the prevalence of dental caries among primary schoolchildren in Phnom Penh City, Cambodia.

Primary verification: is the TRISS appropriate for Thailand?

The Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) is a well-accepted model used to evaluate the quality of trauma care in the US. This research aims to study whether TRISS can be applied to evaluate trauma care and classify outcomes of road traffic injury patients in Thailand. A retrospective study was used to review the Thailand's Injury Surveillance System database from the 1st January to the 31st of December 1996. The study subjects were severe road traffic injury patients with blunt injuries. The TRISS model was applied to compute the survival probability for each patient. The chi-square goodness-of-fit was used to compare the survival probability distribution between the American Major Trauma Outcome of Study (MTOS) and the road traffic injuries in Thailand. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the survival prediction by TRISS were evaluated. The distribution of survival probability between American trauma patients and Thai road traffic injury patients was significantly different (p-value < 0.00001). The TRISS model had high accuracy and sensitivity, but low specificity, in predicting the survival of Thai road traffic injuries. The MTOS and Thai road traffic injuries had different distributions for various factors such as the Revised Trauma Score (RTS), Injury Severity Score (ISS), and ages which effect injury survival. Due to these factors the distribution of survival probability between MTOS and Thai road traffic injuries was also significantly different. By applying TRISS, the survival prediction of Thai road traffic injuries resulted in a high number of false positives.

Atheromatous risk factors among Thai labor forces by socioeconomic status.

The purpose of this study was to describe atheromatous risk factors among Thai labor forces by socioeconomic status (SES) such as income, education and occupation. Undesirable levels of artheromatous risk factors were specified as: total serum cholesterol (TC) > 200 mg per cent, body mass index (BMI) > 25 kg/m2, fasting blood sugar (FBS) > 126 mg/dL, systolic blood pressure (SBP) > 140 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) > 90 mmHg. Data from the Second National Health Examination survey in Thailand from 1996 to 1997 was used, with a total number of 4,198 participants (1,634 males, 2,561 females) aged 13-60 years old. Results from multivariate analysis demonstrated differences in means TC, BMI, SBP and DBP among different age-groups, both in males and females (p < 0.001). TC, BMI, and SBP increased with age in both sexes, but DBP increased with age in females only. Males who lived in a municipality had a higher risk of having undesirable TC and DBP than those who did not. Risk of undesirable BMI varied according to levels of income in males. Males with an income of 5,001-10,000 and > 25,000 baht/month had OR = 1.57 (95% CI = 1.04-2.39) and OR = 2.59 (95% CI = 1.18-5.66) compared to males with an income of < 5,000 baht/month. TC and DBP varied with levels of income in females. For undesirable TC, females with an income of 5,001-10,000 and > 25,000 baht/month had OR = 1.48 (95% CI = 1.01-2.18) and OR = 2.17 (95% CI = 1.03-4.88) compared to females with an income of < 5,000 baht/month. For undesirable DBP, females with an income > 25,000 baht/month had OR = 3.39 (95% CI = 1.31-8.78) compared to females with income an < 5,000 baht/month. Among different levels of education in males, different risks of undesirable TC, BMI, SBP and DBP were not significant, except a borderline significance in TC among vocational graduates. The same phenomenon was observed among females, except that females only a primary education tended to have a higher risk of undesirable BMI (OR = 2.64, 95% CI = 1.39-5.02) compared to females with graduate studies. The level of occupation seemed not to affect the risk of unfavorable atheromatous risk factors among males. Nonetheless, females in the agricultural section seemed to have a lower risk of undesirable TC (OR = 0.38, 95% CI = 0.18-0.78) compared to the professional group. The results suggested the consideration of critical guidance of epidemiological studies in using SES as the control variable, or for selection of subjects or matching criteria. Specific preventive programs on atheromatous risk factors should be launched for some specific socio-demographic groups in order to prevent coronary heart diseases (CHD) in the future.