Children's oral health in Australia: The past decade's research agenda

Research into dental diseases in children is no longer primarily focussed on biological and dietary factors, with social determinants an important influence. The aim of this study was to systematically review the focus of research on influences on children's oral health in Australia. Relevant databases were searched for English language publications between 2008 and 2017. Included studies were original research articles with a focus on influences of oral health for Australian children. A thematic synthesis approach was adopted, and included studies were coded using the Fisher-Owens et al (2007) framework which included child-, family- and community level influences. A total of 252 studies were included in this review. The focus of the included studies was most frequently on child level influences (n = 200, 79.4%), followed by community level (n = 175, 69.4%) and family (n = 86, 38.1%)-level influences. Overall, the highest proportion of included studies were on the child level influences of physical attributes (n = 86, 34.1%) and child maturing (n = 83, 32.9%). The influences with the least number of studies were social environment (n = 2, 0.8%), social support (n = 3, 1.2%) and physical safety on both a family and community levels (n = 3, 1.2% and n = 1, 0.4%, respectively). Monitoring child level influences of oral health has consistently occurred in national surveys and epidemiological studies. Family level influences are comparatively underinvestigated and should be a focus of future research in Australia. This study has helped to identify area gaps in the literature and can guide future studies.