Warner, Frances and Sherriff, Andrea and Culshaw, Shauna and Holliday, Richard and Ryan, Vicky and Conway, David I. (2024) Trends and socioeconomic inequalities in the dental attendance of adult smokers in Scotland from 2009 to 2019, a repeated cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 24 (1): 2156. ISSN 1471-2458
AI Summary:
The study analyzed data from the Scottish Health Surveys (SHeS) from 2009 to 2019. The results showed that a high and increasing proportion of smokers attend the dentist, albeit slightly less frequently than non-smokers. There were large inequalities in dental attendance among smokers, which persisted over time.AI Topics:
Background: Smoking continues to be the single largest cause of preventable disease and death and a major contributor to health inequalities. Dental professionals are well placed to offer behavioural support in combination with pharmacotherapy to increase smoking cessation rates across the population. We aimed to assess the trends and socioeconomic inequalities in the dental attendance of adult smokers in Scotland from 2009 to 2019 and examine the potential population reach of dental settings for smoking cessation interventions. Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted of combined Scottish Health Surveys (SHeS) from 2009/11, 2013/15 and 2017/19. ‘Recent’ dental attendance (within the past two years) was the focus and descriptive analysis examined attendance of self-reported smokers compared to non-smokers and stratified by the area-based Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) and individual socioeconomic measures (income, education, and occupation). Generalised linear models were used to model recent attendance in non-smokers relative to smokers adjusted by the socioeconomic measures, for each of the survey cohorts separately. Absolute differences and risk ratios were calculated with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). Results: Recent dental attendance was generally high and increased in both smokers (70–76%) and non-smokers (84–87%) from 2009/11 to 2017/19 and increased across all SIMD groups. After adjustment for sociodemographic variables, the adjusted Risk Difference (aRD) for recent attendance between non-smokers and smokers was 8.9% (95% CI 4.6%, 13.2%) by 2017/19. Within smokers, recent attendance was 7–9% lower in those living in the most deprived areas compared to those living in the least deprived areas over the three surveys. Conclusions: SHeS data from 2009 to 2019 demonstrated that a high and increasing proportion of smokers in the population attend the dentist, albeit slightly less frequently than non-smokers. There were large inequalities in the dental attendance of smokers, to a lesser extent in non-smokers, and these persisted over time. Dental settings provide a good potential opportunity to deliver population-level smoking cessation interventions, but smokers in the most deprived groups and older age groups may be harder to reach. Consideration should be given to ensure that these groups are given appropriate proportionate support to take up preventive interventions.
Warner, Frances
Author
Warner, Frances and Sherriff, Andrea and Culshaw, Shauna and Holliday, Richard and Ryan, Vicky and Conway, David I. (2024) Trends and socioeconomic inequalities in the dental attendance of adult smokers in Scotland from 2009 to 2019, a repeated cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 24 (1): 2156. ISSN 1471-2458
See full publications listSherriff, Andrea
Author
Burns, Nathan Patrick and Young, David and Sherriff, Andrea and Black, Peter and Blackshaw, Al and Kelly, Louise (2025) Tracking the success of contextual offer students at one Scottish higher education institution. Higher Education Quarterly, 79 (1): e70011. ISSN 0951-5224
Warner, Frances and Sherriff, Andrea and Culshaw, Shauna and Holliday, Richard and Ryan, Vicky and Conway, David I. (2024) Trends and socioeconomic inequalities in the dental attendance of adult smokers in Scotland from 2009 to 2019, a repeated cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 24 (1): 2156. ISSN 1471-2458
Cousins, Kyle and Conway, David and Bradshaw, Paul and Sherriff, Andrea (2024) The accuracy of parent/carer proxy-reporting of caries experience in children and association with socioeconomic circumstances: a cross sectional data linkage study. Community Dental Health, 41 (3). pp. 189-194. ISSN 0265-539X
See full publications listCulshaw, Shauna
Author
Warner, Frances and Sherriff, Andrea and Culshaw, Shauna and Holliday, Richard and Ryan, Vicky and Conway, David I. (2024) Trends and socioeconomic inequalities in the dental attendance of adult smokers in Scotland from 2009 to 2019, a repeated cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 24 (1): 2156. ISSN 1471-2458
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West, Nicola and Chapple, Ian and Culshaw, Shauna and Donos, Nikos and Needleman, Ian and Suvan, Jeanie and Nibali, Luigi and Patel, Amit and Preshaw, Philip M. and Kebschull, Moritz and EFP workshop participants and methodological consultant, . (2024) BSP implementation of prevention and treatment of peri-implant diseases - the EFP S3 level clinical practice guideline. Journal of Dentistry, 149: 104980. ISSN 0300-5712
See full publications listHolliday, Richard
Author
Warner, Frances and Sherriff, Andrea and Culshaw, Shauna and Holliday, Richard and Ryan, Vicky and Conway, David I. (2024) Trends and socioeconomic inequalities in the dental attendance of adult smokers in Scotland from 2009 to 2019, a repeated cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 24 (1): 2156. ISSN 1471-2458
See full publications listRyan, Vicky
Author
Warner, Frances and Sherriff, Andrea and Culshaw, Shauna and Holliday, Richard and Ryan, Vicky and Conway, David I. (2024) Trends and socioeconomic inequalities in the dental attendance of adult smokers in Scotland from 2009 to 2019, a repeated cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 24 (1): 2156. ISSN 1471-2458
See full publications listConway, D.
Author
Serban, Stefan and Conway, David (2025) Sugar tax impact on oral health and the need to go further upstream. British Dental Journal, 238 (8). pp. 642-643. ISSN 0007-0610
Warner, Frances and Sherriff, Andrea and Culshaw, Shauna and Holliday, Richard and Ryan, Vicky and Conway, David I. (2024) Trends and socioeconomic inequalities in the dental attendance of adult smokers in Scotland from 2009 to 2019, a repeated cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health, 24 (1): 2156. ISSN 1471-2458
Smith, Craig D.L. and McMahon, Alex D. and Purkayastha, Mitana and Creaney, Grant and Clements, Kelten and Inman, Gareth J. and Bhatti, Lesley A. and Douglas, Catriona M. and Paterson, Claire and Conway, David I. (2024) Head and neck cancer incidence is rising but the sociodemographic profile is unchanging: a population epidemiological study (2001-2020). BJC Reports, 2: 71. ISSN 2731-9377
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