The Dunedin Study's dental team has received funding from the Clare Foundation.
The Dunedin Study’s dental team has received a significant funding boost to undertake vital research on oral health.
Professor Jonathan Broadbent from the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka Sir John Walsh Research Institute leads a group of multidisciplinary dental researchers who have received a three-year grant from the Clare Foundation.
Clare is a progressive philanthropic foundation that invests in ways that positively impact the environment, oral health, youth wellbeing, and women to create extraordinary change.
The grant will be used to support the collection and analysis of dental data in the Study’s age 52 assessments, which are underway after starting last year. No other birth cohort study in the world has been dentally assessed from early life to this age.
Professor Jonathan Broadbent
Professor Broadbent is extraordinarily grateful to Clare for this funding, which will allow the wider assessment to continue.
“Oral health has been an integral part of the Study since the members were only 5 years old,” he says.
“Some Study members have had ongoing dental problems through life, others have developed problems as they age, while others have had no tooth troubles at all. It is essential to understand how oral health changes with age and the life course histories that are behind this.”
Researchers, both established and new-and-emerging, have expertise in a range of dental specialties, including public health, periodontics, endodontics, prosthodontics, and Māori health. The team also includes experts in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.
“We are working together to produce and share much needed information on the natural history of oral conditions and early dental aging, better understand people’s experiences of oral conditions and oral health care services, and identify factors that promote equity in oral health.”
To do this, Study members undergo an examination to assess things like dental decay and tooth loss, and will share information on their oral health. The data gathered will be complemented by the comprehensive information gathered about each Study member’s life, health, and experiences.
Dunedin Study Director Research Professor Reremoana (Moana) Theodore is very thankful to Clare for supporting the Study’s world-leading dental research and researchers.
“The Clare funding will help our dental researchers who work alongside our Study members on a daily basis. Our globally recognised University of Otago research results from half a century of contribution from the Study member, their families, and the wider Dunedin community.”
Associate Professor Andrew Gray is one of the biostatisticians who is excited by the data being collected.
“High-quality statistical analyses start with great data, and the Dunedin Study is unparalleled in that respect, and this all flows from the amazing generosity of Study members who keep coming back for assessments,” Associate Professor Gray says.
Clare Foundation CEO Alice Montague says the opportunity to support a critical project with such long-term impact was at the heart of the decision to provide such a large scale of funding.
“This study will have a ripple effect on the oral health of generations to come like no other study conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand, and we are proud to be providing the research team with the funds they need to undertake their vital work.”
The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study follows the lives of 1037 babies born in Queen Mary Maternity Hospital between 1 April 1972 and 31 March 1973.
It is New Zealand’s longest-running longitudinal study and is considered the world’s most detailed study of human health and development.