Citizen Science for Optimizing Oral Health Education, Research and Practice: A Scoping Review
Mattias Neset, Svetlana V Komarova, Pascaline K Talla
PHD 3 in Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences at McGill University
Rationale: Citizen science is an innovative approach of engaging/involving members of the public in the research process to advance legacy data findings and to promote equity and evidence-based decision-making. There is growing recognition of this approach in public health to yield benefits for researchers, policymakers, and citizen such as increasing research capacity, improving knowledge, and citizen benefits including health literacy, empowerment, and a stronger sense of coherence. Despite these benefits, a limited number of studies have explored this concept in dentistry and oral health sciences.
Objectives: The aim of this project is to perform a scoping review to map how the research has been conducted around the citizen science approach in the field of oral health sciences and to summarize the evidence about the citizen science concept in oral health sciences. Methodology: A preliminary search was conducted in OVID Medline using simple keywords ((Citizen OR Community OR Engagement) AND (Oral Health OR Dentistry)) to provide us with a basis upon which the search will be refined. The articles were analyzed for three key study design points: their description of the “citizen science method”, included participant population, and the area of oral health that the study targets. Inclusion criteria was centered around studies that used the participants actively to gather, process and analyze data. Studies that used citizens just as the data were excluded.
Expected results: A preliminary search resulted in 50 articles, with 11 being deemed viable for inclusion. Additionally, these data show that there is no specific area that consistently utilizes citizen science in dentistry. Instead, this approach has been used in dental public health /oral health education, research, and policy, but some results also show beneficial clinical applications as well. Further analysis aims to compare protocols and methodology in these various fields of oral health sciences, providing an overview of which methods work in which areas.
Conclusion: This scoping review will dissect the status of citizen science in all aspects of oral health. This information could inform the future research in dentistry and community engagement.