School league tables: A new population based predictor of dental restorative treatment need

Aim: To test whether dental restorative treatment need was related to the school league tables and level of social deprivation of the school ward. Design: An ecological study using clinical data aggregated at school level, collected in the school dental screening examinations (1996-97), National Census (1991) and the results of the UK school league tables - Key Stage 2 SATs (1996-97). Setting: State primary schools in the Greenwich District of SE London, UK (1996-97). Subjects: 12,854 pupils (6-11 years of age) in 62 schools. Outcome measure: The percentage of 6 to 11 year old pupils per school requiring dental restorative treatment. Results: Deprivation as measured by the overall Jarman Under Privileged Area Index (UPA) of the school ward was not associated with dental restorative treatment need (p>0.05). Only two components of the Jarman Index, level of unemployment and the number of lone parent families in the school ward were found to be significantly associated with dental restorative treatment need (p<0.05). Results of stepwise multiple linear regression analysis showed that the association with the school league table results in all three subjects, English, Mathematics and Science remained statistically significant after adjusting for levels of unemployment and single parents. Results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that a high level of dental restorative treatment need was significantly associated with poor school league table results in English, Mathematics and Science (p<0.05) after adjusting for the overall Jarman score of the school ward. A separate analysis for the 11-year-old pupils aggregated by school (n=46 schools) gave similar results. Conclusions: Aggregate measures of academic achievement may be a potential indicator of dental restorative treatment need.