Transactions of an international conference. Worldwide concern: better dental care for more people. An international collaborative study. How social surveys were conducted.

It is assumed that utilization of dental care services and hence the state of oral health is dependent on social and psychological characteristics of both consumers and providers. The sociological variables studied included the basic facts of age, sex, residence and socioeconomic status. Attitudes to general health care, past oral health care and self assessment of oral health status were also investigated. Accessibility of oral health care facilities in terms of cost, loss of time and distance travelled was assessed, as was the consumers estimate of the dentist's sensitivity and competence, his attitude to preventive care, aesthetic values and knowledge of oral health care measures. Sociologists from the participating countries cooperated in the formulation of questionnaires which could be applied with comparable results despite differences in language and culture. Adults were interviewed in their own homes while younger groups completed the questionnaire in school under the supervision of the researchers. In all cases the sociological survey preceded the clinical examination to reduce the introduction of bias. The data were collected in Geneva and analysed to determine the extent to which oral health status could be related to perception of need, personal oral health practices, availability, accessibility, acceptability and utilization of services. Further analysis may help to determine whether observed differences between populations relate more to the characteristics of the systems of dental care or to features inherent in the population of the country.