National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Submission for the NIH Comprehensive Strategic Plan and Budget To Reduce and Ultimately Eliminate Health Disparities

Abstract

The NIDCR health disparities plan recognizes that eliminating oral health disparities requires a comprehensive and systematic approach to understand and address the multiple and often complex factors that may determine oral health. While the research challenges relate to understanding the causes of health disparities, elucidating risk factors, facilitating means of risk reduction, and enhancing care delivery and health promotion, attention also must be paid to addressing the lack of diversity in the scientific workforce and to improving educational and outreach activities to transfer health information to the communities of interest. Thus, the plan emphasizes three major areas: research, research training, and health communication. The plan builds on the investments of NIDCR since the early 1990’s to enhance research opportunities for underrepresented minorities and on more than 50 years of research to understand, treat and prevent oral diseases. Recognizing the complexity and wealth of factors that may contribute to disparities in oral health, and the considerable diversity between and within the affected communities, the NIDCR strategy to eliminate health disparities is viewed as an incremental long-term approach that involves collaborations with many organizations and institutions that constitute the oral health community – researchers, educators, clinicians, academic institutions, patient advocates, and professional and voluntary groups.