Study finds racial, ethnic disparities in dental caries among NC kindergarten students

October 19, 2015

In a new study, a faculty member and an alumna of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health examined racial and ethnic disparities in dental caries, commonly known as “cavities,” among kindergarten students in North Carolina as well as the cross-level effects between students’ race and ethnicity and their school’s poverty status.

Dr. Gary Rozier

The study authors were Go Matsuo, BDS, MPH, alumnus of the N.C. Dental Public Health Residency Program in the Division of Public Health’s Oral Health Section, Gary R. Rozier, DDS, MPH, professor of health policy and management at the Gillings School, and Ashley M. Kranz, PhD, alumna of the Gillings School’s Department of Health Policy and Management.

The research team examined data about more than 70,000 students from more than 1,000 schools across 95 N.C. counties. They found that the average prevalence of dental caries was 30.4 percent for white students, 39 percent for African-American students and 51.7 percent for Hispanic students.

The team also learned that the difference in caries experience between African-American and white students was significantly greater in schools with National School Lunch Program participation of less than 75 percent.

Thus, the study concludes that racial and ethnic oral health disparities exist among kindergarten students in N.C. regardless of school poverty status. Furthermore, disparities in caries between white and African-American students are larger in non-poor schools than in poor schools.

“By the time children are in kindergarten in North Carolina, tooth decay is well established, as are racial, ethnic and economic disparities,” said Rozier. “We find it to be the most common chronic disease of childhood, and its resolution will require equitable, systems-based interventions starting soon after birth.”

The full article, titled “Dental Caries: Racial and Ethnic Disparities Among North Carolina Kindergarten Students,” was published online Oct. 15 by the American Journal of Public Health.