History of dental caries in Inuit populations: genetic implications and ‘distance effect’

Dental caries is considered the third most important scourge in the world. In North America, Inuit populations are the population the most severely affected by dental caries. It is often assumed that this situation can be explained by a combination of factors classical for Indigenous populations: re...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:International journal of circumpolar health 2023-12, Vol.82 (1), p.2252568-2252568
Hauptverfasser: Kabous, Julie, Esclassan, Rémi, Noirrit-Esclassan, Emmanuelle, Alva, Omar, Krishna Murti, Pawan, Paquet, Liliane, Grondin, Julie, Letellier, Thierry, Pierron, Denis
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Dental caries is considered the third most important scourge in the world. In North America, Inuit populations are the population the most severely affected by dental caries. It is often assumed that this situation can be explained by a combination of factors classical for Indigenous populations: remoteness (geographical distance), low economic status and low health literacy (cultural distance). Using a bibliographic approach, we tested this hypothesis of the “distance effect” by exploring the caries prevalence in other Indigenous populations living in high-income countries. Next, we tested whether the high prevalence of caries is due to population-specific characteristics by tracking caries prevalence over the past few centuries. In result, we showed that while other Indigenous populations are more impacted by caries than the general populations, the Inuit populations present the highest prevalence. Paradoxically, we showed also that past Inuit populations were almost immune to caries before 1950. These two elements suggest that the prevalence of caries observed presently is a recent maladaptation and that beyond the effect of cultural and geographical distance, specific biocultural factors have to be investigated.
ISSN:2242-3982
1239-9736
2242-3982
DOI:10.1080/22423982.2023.2252568