Geographical Population Analysis of Dental Trauma in Schoolchildren in Curitiba-Pr

Objectives: Analyse the occurrence of cases of dental trauma using a geographical population database and the spatial behaviour of such occurrences. Investigate the significance of the spatial variation and to identify risk areas, as well as the respective coverage of the problem by the city Health System. Methods: From the geostatistical analysis of the database, thematic maps were generated with the distribution of cases of dental trauma by Health Districts and other variables of interest. The spatial variation of the risk of dental trauma was assessed using a generalized additive model in order to identify and control the individual risk factors and thus determine whether spatial variation is constant or not throughout the region studied. Taking the spatial distribution of the City of Curitiba’s Health Centres, an analysis was made of the coverage of dental trauma cases generating a thematic map. Results: The overall prevalence of dental trauma was 37.1%, with 53.1% being male and 46.7% female, and 66.8% of cases in public schools and 33.2% in private schools. The spatial analysis allow accepting the hypothesis that there are significant spatial effects on the occurrence of dental trauma in the population studied (Monte Carlo test, p=0,006), with multivariate analysis controlling for the spatial effect. With regard to the spatial operations performed, 28.68% of the cases had no coverage, according to the methodology used. Conclusions: The spatial effect added to the model used in the study was seen to be highly significant in relation to the response variable. The delimitation of areas, as a basis for risk and case density enable the qualification of geographical territories where actions can be planned based on priority criteria. Promotion, control and rehabilitation actions, applied in regions of greater risk and higher density of cases, can be more effective and efficient, providing refinement of healthcare.