This study aimed to quantify differences between self-rated general health and self-rated oral health amongst Indigenous Australian adults and to quantify differences between Indigenous self-rated general health and self-rated oral health compared to the general Australian population.
Methods:
Data were from four studies involving Indigenous Australian adults and one national study. The national study was further separated into indigenous and non indigenous respondents. Studies had sample sizes of n=468, 446, 289, 317, 15414 and 229 respectively. Self-rated oral health and self-rated general health were both dichotomised into excellent/very good/good and fair/poor respectively. Cross-tabulations were conducted to produce prevalence’s and 95% CI of the outcome variables. Missing data was not included in the analysis.
Results:
In the first Indigenous study 63% reported excellent/very good/good oral health and 73.5% reported excellent/very good/good general health. In the second study 45.8% reported excellent/very good/good oral health and 89.6% reported excellent/very good/good general health. In the third study 54.9% reported excellent/very good/good oral health and 75.7% reported excellent/very good/good general health. In the final study 47.9% reported excellent/very good/good oral health and 74.4% reported excellent/very good/good general health.
In the general population study 82.4% reported their oral health as excellent/very good/good, 87.7% reported their general health as excellent/very good/good. When Indigenous respondents were analysed, 72.8% reported their oral health as excellent/very good/good and 85.6% reported their general health as excellent/very good/good.
Conclusion:
Generally it appears that within Indigenous samples a higher proportion of respondents are reporting high general health than those reporting high oral health. In the general population study it is more equal. When Indigenous respondents are separately analysed the same trend appears as in the other Indigenous samples. A lower percentage of Indigenous respondents rate their oral health and in most cases their general health highly compare to the general population.
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