Research
message Bringing home the
An in-depth survey of homeless people has flagged up where improvements can be made in dental care programmes. By Albert Yeung, Emma Coles, Anne Moore, Celia Watt and Ruth Freeman
I
n 2007, a successful proposal to improve the oral health of homeless people was put to the Chief Dental Officer in Scotland. The proposal
was called ‘Smile4life’, and was submitted by a consortium of seven NHS boards in Scotland (Ayrshire and Arran, Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Highland, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Tayside). The aim of the Smile4life proposal was to facilitate the development of evidence-based oral health preven- tive programmes for homeless people in Scotland. The Smile4life programme is
part of the Oral Health and Health Research Programme at the Dental Health Services Research Unit at the University of Dundee. This ongoing work is being coordinated by the University of Dundee and NHS Highland. The project team has also included input from the Scottish Council for Single Home- less, Glasgow Homeless Network and NHS Health Scotland. This article only describes the
initial phase of the programme carried out in the Lanarkshire area. The objective of the programme was to conduct a needs assessment to inform the current oral health and preventive oral health needs from the homeless clients’ perspective. A report on the national survey is available from
www.dundee.ac.uk/ dhsru/news/
smile4life.htm The Smile4life survey for Lanark-
shire consisted of two components. A questionnaire was used to assess the general health, oral health
46 Scottish Dental magazine
and behaviour of the Lanarkshire sample of homeless people, and an oral examination was carried out to find out the oral health conditions of each participant. These data were collected
on Wednesday evenings on a weekly basis during the survey period, with visits to two establishments for the homeless per evening. These venues included hostels and soup kitchens. A total of ı02 homeless people in
the Lanarkshire area took part in the Smile4life survey, representing ı2 per cent of the total sample of 853 participants across seven NHS Boards in Scotland. All ı02 participants consented to the oral examination.
Demographic profile Age and gender The mean age of the Lanarkshire sample was 3ı years. The age ranged from ı6 to 63 years, with a median age of 27 years. The mean age of the men was 33 years, and for women was 24 years. There were 76 male and 26 female participants.
Ethnicity Nine-two per cent of the sample w e r e C auca - sian. The remaining eight per cent did not give information on their ethnicity.
ORIGINAL PHOTO © ALAN RUNCIE
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