Oral health surveillance in Australia: the need for ongoing data to inform public health decision-making
Amit Chattopadhyay A B C D I , Bradley Christian E , Mark Gussy A F , Mohd Masood A , Shalika Hegde G , Anil Raichur H , Rachel Martin A and Amanda Kenny AA La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Bendigo, Vic. 3550, Australia.
B School of Dental Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
C Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore 576104, India.
D Baltimore City Health Department, MD 21202, USA.
E Western New South Wales Local Health District, Dubbo, NSW 2830, Australia.
F College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN6 7TS, UK.
G Dental Health Services, The Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne, Vic. 3053, Australia.
H Department of Health and Human Services Victoria, Melbourne, Vic. 3000, Australia.
I Corresponding author. Email: Amit.Chattopadhyay@baltimorecity.gov
Australian Journal of Primary Health 28(1) 18-22 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY21001
Submitted: 1 January 2021 Accepted: 9 March 2021 Published: 9 December 2021
Abstract
Surveillance of people’s health takes on an important meaning in the practice of public health because it allows monitoring of diseases and prompt response to change in proportions and rates at which diseases occur in populations. Improving health of populations requires establishment of an effective public health system. Population level data and analysis is critically important in government policy and program development and monitoring. Lack of or inadequate information about the health of populations leads to ineffective policies that may often attenuate health problems instead of solving them. Australia’s current oral health surveillance is mostly through ad hoc sentinel surveys, which lack recency in time. This position paper is to present the need for real-time oral health surveillance in Australia, which can be used to inform health decision-making in a timely manner.
Keywords: surveillance, oral health, public health practice, epidemiologic factors, health resources.
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