Grant: Project Grant

There are over 21 million refugees and 3 million asylum seekers in the world today. Canada actively seeks these humanitarian migrants for resettlement. Over 80,000 refugees were resettled between 2015 and 2017, with an additional 58,000 awaiting their asylum requests. Studies indicate that the general health of humanitarian migrants is fragile, especially for those having lived through war, famine, poverty and spent years in refugee camps. Oral health is one area where health research has not yet developed for this population. According to the World Health Organization, there is an urgent need to develop research in this neglected area. Tooth decay (cavities), periodontal disease (bone loss around the teeth), tooth loss, oral cancers, HIV/AIDS-related oral disease and dental trauma are major public health problems. Further, research is increasingly demonstrating important connections among oral health, general health and quality of life (e.g., pain, disability, stigma, loss of taste and smell, inability to eat, smile or communicate). Many general diseases (e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer) have oral manifestations which then in turn increase the risk of oral disease. Importantly, oral health follows a gradient of socioeconomic status (SES): those with the lowest SES demonstrate the worst oral health, least service use, and poorest treatment adherence. This study is designed to better understand the oral health of newly-arrived humanitarian migrants in Canada and their pathways to finding dental care. This is the first project in Canada to take a systematic approach to the oral health of this population. This study is necessary to provide baseline data from which to develop targeted interventions through a longitudinal program of research on the oral health of humanitarian migrants in Canada.