Venturelli, Renato;
Blokland, Alex;
Tsakos, Georgios;
Stennett, Michelle;
Makhani, Semina;
Jones, Kate;
Watt, Richard G;
(2025)
Oral health inequalities concerning socially vulnerable population groups in the United Kingdom: a scoping review.
British Dental Journal
10.1038/s41415-025-8916-8.
(In press).
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Abstract
Background: Marginalised and socially excluded groups face discrimination, multiple health risk factors, and barriers to accessing care, leading to poor health outcomes and substantial inequalities. // Aim: This scoping review synthesises evidence on the oral health of socially vulnerable populations in the United Kingdom, including people experiencing homelessness, prisoners, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, looked-after children, sex workers, and asylum seekers and refugees. // Methods: A systematic search of quantitative studies published between January 2000 and December 2021 was conducted, including clinical and subjective measures of oral health, as well as oral health-related behaviours and dental service use. Peer-reviewed articles were searched using Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, PubMed, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Grey literature was also included. // Results: Of the 22 included studies, most focused on homeless and prisoner populations. Overall, studies reported a high prevalence of caries (61–67%), periodontal disease (56–92%), and poor self-reported oral health (71–87%), as well as overall low and mainly symptomatic dental attendance. Studies were predominantly local and based on small samples. The search did not identify any publications for sex workers, asylum seekers and refugees. // Conclusions: Socially vulnerable groups in the United Kingdom experience significant oral health inequalities. There is a need for more comprehensive research and targeted policies to address these inequalities.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Oral health inequalities concerning socially vulnerable population groups in the United Kingdom: a scoping review |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41415-025-8916-8 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-025-8916-8 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.© The Author(s) 2025. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10216994 |
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