Real-world dental health of Ukrainian war refugee children and adolescents in Umbria, Italy: preliminary data

Background More than two years of the Russian-Ukrainian war have resulted in widespread human and economic tragedy. This crisis also affects health status, including oral health. Objective To carry out an exploratory analysis on the extent of caries in Ukrainian war refugee children and adolescents, and in addition to determine whether there was a statistically significant association between caries and age, gender, periodontal health status (using the Periodontal Screening and Recording (PSR) index), self-reported socioeconomic status and Italian language speaking skills. Methods This study used a cross-sectional design, was conducted in Perugia, Italy at the University Dental Clinic (COU) between November 2023 and April 2024 and included 50 children and adolescents between 3 and 18 years old (mean age 9.2 SD 4.6) with Ukrainian citizenship who had left their home country due to the war. The visits were conducted in the presence of a cultural mediator. The visits consisted of two parts: the administration of questionnaires on socio-economic status and communication skills, followed by a dental examination. A logistic regression model was used to identify the factors independently associated (age, sex, PSR, socio-economic status and level of communication) with high DMFT/dmft values. Results The refugees' mean DMFT/dmft was 3.5 SD 2.5. The multivariate logistic regression model showed that increased PSR (OR 7.71, 95% CI 1.38-22.94, p = 0.020) and low communication (OR 6.09, 95% CI 1.34-27.69, p = 0.019) were independently associated with the risk of having a DMFT/dmft > 4. Conclusions The study findings were worrying in terms of the prevalence and severity of caries, especially in refugee children with a poor level of integration in the host country. This study with its preliminary data provides a starting point to reflect on the need for specific health policies adapted to a complex type of social vulnerability such as refugee children status.