Several studies comparing NHANES data to previous national surveys document that oral health in the US is improving. The purpose of this study was to determine if this overall trend holds for prisoners in Iowa. Every 2nd or 3rd admittee screened by IMCC staff between June and December 1998 participated in this study. Data on decay and number of teeth for 174 prisoners were grouped to match data on decay reported by Winn et al in 1996 and on number of teeth reported by Marcus et al in 1996 for US adults. Student's t-tests were used to compare the groups with a .05 level of significance. Male prisoners had a mean of 17.95 (sd 17.7) decayed surfaces and 25.53 (sd 3.75) teeth present. In contrast, US dentate males had a mean of 2.1 (sd 6.48) decayed surfaces and 21.5 (sd 15.21) teeth present. Overall these differences were statistically significant for both decay and number of teeth. For decay, the differences were significant for all matched age groups, but for number of teeth, the differences were only significant for the youngest age group, where prisoners had fewer teeth. Female prisoners had a mean of 16.4 (sd 20.79) decayed surfaces and 25.12 (sd 2.92) teeth present: while US dentate females had 1.5 (sd 6.46) and 20.7 (sd 18.67) respectively. The differences were statistically significant. Iowa prisoners are clearly disparate in terms of their oral health. Elimination of this disparity requires additional oral health care resources within the corrections systems.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participants will be able to recognize that prisoners are disparate with respect to oral health. During the session the faculty will compare data on the oral health of a sample of prisoners in Iowa with data on the oral health of a sample of the US adult population
Keywords: Oral Health, Prisoners Health Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Iowa Medical Classification Center
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.