A rural dental health promotion plan in Japan: An interim evaluation of dental health in the Nagano Prefecture health promotion movement “Health Grade Up NAGANO 21”

抄録

The Nagano Prefecture health promotion program “Health Grade Up Nagano 21” contains specific goals for dental health. These goals were evaluated in 2004, the middle the health promotion project period. Concerning the program’s main goals, the proportion of 3-year-old children without caries of deciduous teeth improved from 63.6% (baseline) to 71.4% in 2004. DMFT index at 12 years old fell from 2.3 (baseline) to 1.6 in 2004. Thus, the main targets generally improved, although certain areas require further improvement. For infants, we strongly advocate that parents refrain from giving sugary foods between meals. For school-aged children, it is necessary to provide personal guidance about how to clean the teeth and oral cavity and to stress the importance of the fluoride application program. For adults, we need to further encourage periodic dental health check-ups, and it is also necessary to cooperate with industrial health programs on this matter. It is important for us to develop a plan to improve these areas.