The Research Agenda on Oral Health Inequalities: The IADR-GOHIRA Initiative

The World Health Organization asserts that oral health is a basic human right, yet this is a right enjoyed by few. Oral disease is a major problem in high-income countries, where the cost of treating oral diseases often exceeds that for major non-communicable diseases. In low-to-middle income countries, oral diseases are a severe and growing public health problem. Furthermore, major inequalities exist both within and between countries in terms of disease severity and prevalence, and major social gradients exist in the prevalence of oral disease. The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) has responded to the challenge of poor oral health and oral health inequalities through the Global Oral Health Inequalities: the Research Agenda (GOHIRA) initiative. In a Call to Action it has set out the priorities for research that can lead to a reduction in oral health inequalities. Three key challenges have been identified, namely gaps in knowledge and an insufficient focus on social policy, the separation of oral health from general health, and inadequate evidence-based data. Ten key research priorities have been identified with due regard to the differing needs of the variety of global health care systems, and a set of prioritized outcomes and a timeline for implementation have been defined. In the wider context of the proposals set out above, five immediate priorities for action have been proposed.