Perceptions of dental treatment need in Australian-born and migrant populations

The objective of this study was to investigate differences in self-perceived anddentist-determined treatment need in Australian-born and migrant residents ofAustralia. Participants in the National Survey of Adult Oral Health 2004–06 werecategorized into six groups according to country of birth. Interview and examina-tion data were used to analyze differences between self-perceived and the ‘goldstandard’ examiner-determined treatment need, and to compare the accuracy ofself-reporting according to country of birth. Self-reported treatment needs, definedas the need for a restoration and/or extraction, were cross-tabulated with clini-cally observed conditions and compared using a multivariable logistic regressionmodel. Concordance between self-reported and clinically-determined treatmentneed differed significantly for migrants from Europe and the UK and Australian-born individuals. In the logistic regression model, stratification according toexaminer-determined treatment need revealed significantly greater reporting oftreatment need by Asian-born migrants than by the Australian-born referencegroup. The results of this study demonstrate that self-perceived treatment needwas less than the examiner-determined findings in European and UK migrantgroups and Australian-born individuals. Additionally, Asian migrants were morelikely than Australian-born individuals to over-report treatment need for a fillingand/or extraction