%0 Journal Article
%T Oral health and social and emotional well-being in a birth cohort of Aboriginal Australian young adults
%A Lisa M Jamieson
%A Yin C Paradies
%A Wendy Gunthorpe
%A Sheree J Cairney
%A Susan M Sayers
%J BMC Public Health
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2458-11-656
%X Data were collected on five validated domains of social and emotional well-being: anxiety, resilience, depression, suicide and overall mental health. Independent variables included socio-demographics, dental health behaviour, dental disease experience, oral health-related quality of life, substance use, racial discrimination and cultural knowledge.After adjusting for other covariates, poor oral health-related items were associated with each of the social and emotional well-being domains. Specifically, anxiety was associated with being female, having one or more decayed teeth and racial discrimination. Resilience was associated with being male, having a job, owning a toothbrush, having one or more filled teeth and knowing a lot about Indigenous culture; while being female, having experienced dental pain in the past year, use of alcohol, use of marijuana and racial discrimination were associated with depression. Suicide was associated with being female, having experience of untreated dental decay and racial discrimination; while being female, having experience of dental disease in one or more teeth, being dissatisfied about dental appearance and racial discrimination were associated with poor mental health.The results suggest there may be value in including oral health-related initiatives when exploring the role of physical conditions on Indigenous social and emotional well-being.In the Indigenous Australian context, social and emotional well-being is a broad concept reflecting a holistic understanding of life and health. It includes mental health, as well as cultural, spiritual and social well-being [1]. The concept also attempts to encompass the impact of grief and trauma through colonisation, separation from families, and loss of land and culture on Indigenous Australians [2]. The social and emotional well-being of many Indigenous Australians is poor, for example, in the 2004-05 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health survey, Indigenous Australians we
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/656