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Objectives This review aimed to investigate the effect of water fluoridation on the dental health of Scottish people by comparing results of starting and discontinuing fluoridation in Scotland.Data sources Data sources were retrieved from electronic databases. The grey literature was also searched. Articles were selected if the population of interest was Scottish. The objective was to evaluate the influence of water fluoridation on dental caries using the dmft/s, DMFT/S (decayed, missing and filled teeth/surfaces) or deft/s indices (decayed, extraction needed, filled teeth/surfaces).Data extraction Name of the authors, publication years, location of the study, sample size, type of study design, age of participants, method of assessing the outcome, data related to the exposure and the outcome, and the overall result of each study were extracted. The data were collected based on the effect of water fluoridation and its cessation on dental caries and the type of dentition.Results Nine studies were included in the review. The findings revealed that the introduction of water fluoridation led to reductions in caries. Moreover, after the cessation of fluoridation, caries levels continued to remain lower in the fluoridated groups. Additionally, fluoridation had the effect of reducing the cost of dental treatment.Conclusion Water fluoridation was effective in improving dental caries among the Scottish child population. New studies are required to provide contemporary evidence for water fluoridation in Scotland.
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Introduction: 15% of all presentations to our emergency department last year were chest pain related. This presented an opportunity to evaluate the impact of a brief physician counselling intervention on patient-reported changes in cardio-protective foodstuff intake. Methods: This is a prospective non-randomised before and after comparison study without controls, conducted between an emergency department presentation and a scheduled follow-up visit at a cardiac diagnostics department. Participants were recruited between February and March 2021. The selected dietary components for inclusion after review of the literature were green leafy vegetables, other coloured vegetables, wholegrains, legumes and fruits. A food frequency questionnaire was completed by patients before and after a physician counselling intervention aided by a dietary infographic. Additionally, using the transtheoretical model for health behaviour change, we assessed each patient's evolution during the study. Results: 38 patients were recruited. For patients with total baseline consumptions of five or fewer per day, there was an increase in cardioprotective foodstuff intakes (z=-2.784 p<0.005 effect size 0.39). Corresponding to this, there was a participant shift observed towards the action and maintenance phases of behaviour change from the contemplation and preparation phases. Discussion: We demonstrated a statistically significant change with moderate effect size using a simple infographic, coupled with brief physician counselling, to promote increased intake of cardioprotective foodstuffs by patients with poor baseline intakes (<5 cardio-protective foods per day) and known modifiable risk factors for ischaemic heart disease. Conclusion: Diet is one arm in the prevention of cardiovascular disease that is often neglected by physicians. This study found that a brief dietary counselling intervention applied in an emergency department setting, administered by non-nutritionists can have a role in changing patient dietary behaviour.