JCP Digest 03 explores links between socio-economic status and periodontal health

The latest issue of the EFP’s research summary JCP Digest – now available for viewing and download in PDF format from the EFP website – offers an evaluation of rival models for explaining the association between socio-economic status and periodontal health. 

JCP Digest 03 (2015:42) offers a summary of research, published in full in the March 2015 edition of the Journal of Clinical Periodontology (JCP), which considers which of two different life-course models – the ‘Critical Period model’ or the ‘Social Mobility model’ – better explains the relationship between socio-economic position and periodontal health.

The study, which notes that changes in socio-economic position at different moments during people’s lives affect their oral health, was based on data derived from a national health and nutrition survey carried out in South Korea between 2007 and 2009.

It concluded that adult socio-economic indicators, such as household income and occupation, were better predictors of periodontal status than a person’s socio-economic position in childhood. The researchers also found that occupational mobility was related to periodontal status only in women.

The original paper was written by Bo-Mi Shin, Jae-In Ryu, Aubrey Sheiham, Loc Giang Do, and Se-Hwan Jung.

It was précised for the JCP Digest by postgraduate periodontology students at the Faculty of Dentistry at the Complutense University of Madrid, working under the direction of Prof David Herrera and Dr Eduardo Montero.

Each issue of the JCP Digest provides a concise summary of a relevant research paper from the JCP. The current and previous issues can be accessed here.