THE MEDICAL DESERTIFICATION: SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS AND BARRIERS TO ACCESS TO ORAL HEALTH CARE
« The aim of the project is to examine the way in which oral health is taken into account by healthcare professionals and the way in which people relate to their oral health. »
Identify representational and structural barriers to access to oral healthcare
This research crosses territorial discrimination with health inequalities. It aims to identify the representational and structural obstacles to access to oral health care in rural and peri-urban areas of Aisne, Oise and Île-de-France. To do this, we must first characterize the dental medical desert as a space where vulnerabilities accumulate. It will also identify the oral health care providers in the area covered. The survey aims to highlight these representational obstacles for both healthcare professionals and their patients. Finally, we need to distinguish between non-use, renunciation and prioritization of dental care. What are the determinants of each in the care pathway? What impact do they have on changes in oral health status?
Contributing to a sociology of oral health inequalities
Oral health is rarely linked to the issue of medical desertification. All the more so as oral health is neglected by the social sciences and in the study of health inequalities. The main data available have often been produced as part of theses for the state diploma of doctor of dental surgery. The project will contribute to a sociology of oral health inequalities. It will also enrich empirical studies on rural areas, which have also been largely neglected by the social sciences.
Biography
Christelle Fifaten Hounsou is a sociologist associated with the Migrations et Société research unit (Université Sorbonne Paris Cité/Paris 7 Diderot) and affiliated with the Institut Convergences Migrations. Her work explores the construction and professional commitment of healthcare practitioners in contexts of radical change: migration, recompositions of the social state. Her thesis, defended in 2018, focused on the international mobility of doctors from West Africa.
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