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Do schools put children's oral health at risk owing to lack of a health-promoting policy?




TekijätAnttila J, Kankaanpaa R, Tolvanen M, Saranpaa S, Hiiri A, Lahti S

KustantajaSAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD

Julkaisuvuosi2012

JournalScandinavian Journal of Public Health

Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimiSCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Lehden akronyymiSCAND J PUBLIC HEALT

Numero sarjassa5

Vuosikerta40

Numero5

Aloitussivu423

Lopetussivu430

Sivujen määrä8

ISSN1403-4948

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1177/1403494812453886


Tiivistelmä
Background: To achieve a healthy school environment with good nutrition as recommended by World Health Organization, health-promoting policies are needed. Aims: To ascertain whether Finnish schools had oral-health-promoting policies and whether the presence of the policy was associated with practical actions related to oral-health promotion. Another aim was to determine if and how the policy and the actions had changed in 2007-09. Methods: This longitudinal survey was implemented in Finnish upper comprehensive school classes 7-9 (n=970) in 2007-09. The questionnaire contained 32 questions concerning selling of sweet- and healthy products, school policy, and decision-makers of the policy. From the nine items on the questionnaire, three variables were formed by weighting the response categories: Policy, Exposure, and Enabling. The mean values of each variable were calculated and the statistical significances of the changes were analysed using nonparametric Friedman's test. The correlations between the variables were investigated by Spearman's correlation coefficients. Results: The majority of schools did not have clearly defined oral-health-promoting policies, then they improved in making them, decreased exposure of pupils to sweet products, and offered more oral-health-enabling factors (p < 0.041). In 2009, the oral-health-promoting policy and enabling factors of the schools correlated positively (r=0.200; p=0.001) and pupil exposure to selling of sweet products and oral-health-enabling factors correlated negatively (r=-0.176; p=0.005). Conclusions: As even a national recommendation do not seem to have a major effect in changing oral-health-promoting policies, schools need more support on their way towards healthier school environment.



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