Chinese people’s awareness of oral health has been greatly enhanced in the past 10 years, especially among children and the elderly, a survey released on Tuesday found.

The results of the fourth national oral health epidemiological investigation were announced by the National Health and Family Planning Commission on Tuesday.

The investigation, undertaken in 2016, surveyed 172,000 people of different ages in 31 provincial regions of China.

It found that a few more people have cultivated good habits in taking care of their teeth, compared with past surveys. More than 30 percent of 12-year-old children and 36.1 percent of adults surveyed said they brushed their teeth twice a day in 2016. That’s up from 28 percent for 12-year-olds and 32 percent for adults in 2007.

More children have received counsel from doctors about their oral health habits, as well as examinations and treatment.

Children are at high risk of tooth decay because of high sugar intake and insufficient oral care, data show. The World Health Organization considers 1.2 or fewer cavities – also called caries – in the teeth to be low incidence.

According to the investigation, the average number of cavities for a 12-year-old Chinese child in 2016 was 0.86 – below the WHO threshold and lower than the 1.2 cavities in the United States and 1.4 in Japan. China’s cavity count was less than half of South Korea’s average of 1.8 for 12-year-olds.

The health authority said elderly people performed better than middle-aged people when it comes to oral health. Elderly people ranging in age from 65 to 74 in China had 22.5 teeth on average, 1.5 more teeth than 10 years ago, which is a major improvement.

However, the rate of gingival bleeding and dental tartar (hardened plaque) among people aged 35 to 44, were 87.4 percent and 96.7 percent respectively, suggesting there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

Wang Xing, an adviser for the Chinese Stomatological Association, said the main reasons middle-aged people have worse oral health lies in their heavy work stress and insufficient attention.

“Many middle-aged people are buried in work, and are short of time and energy to pay attention to their oral health. In addition, a number of them don’t regard oral diseases as real diseases,” Wang said. “They don’t attach enough importance to it until they are unable to bear a toothache.”

The investigation also shows a gap between cities and villages. People in cities performed better than those in rural areas in every aspect. In many rural areas, poor people do not go to the hospital for dental care because the high expenses are not covered by medical insurance.

Chang Jile, an official of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said the government is working to extend the range of medical healthcare and to establish special programs.

“We have set up several programs aimed at certain oral diseases that will ease people’s financial burden,” Chang said. “For example, we have helped 12,000 elderly people in poor areas get their teeth filled for free and will continue to do so.”

Chinese authorities have vowed to take steps to more closely monitor the country’s matchmaking industry, according to a guideline released on Monday.

This is going to include real-name registrations on dating websites, as well as a crackdown on marriage fraud, an increase of marital counseling services and the promotion of sexual health education.

The guidelines have been drafted by the Communist Youth League, as well as the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Plans include an increase in matchmaking events, both online and offline.

Authorities say they do intend to defend young people’s legitimate rights and interests in the context of marriage and reproduction.

This follows the suicide of a prominent app developer earlier this month. The man’s family claims he took his own life after his wife of just one-month divorced him, then allegedly demanded a massive payout.

The couple met on a Chinese dating website.

President Xi Jinping on Tuesday stressed the importance of preventing and controlling major risks through the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks while meeting representatives from the public security.

Xi said those working in the sector should improve their political awareness and maintain the authority and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee.

They should be sober-minded about the difficulties and challenges facing them, and deal with major risks, he said.

Xi stressed that better social governance would better solve various social problems. He told the representatives to make social governance more systematic, rational, intelligent and in accordance with rule of law. Social governance should be improved through advanced theory, a scientific attitude, professional methods and appropriate standards.

He demanded better coordination and ability to predict and prevent risks, and improve the precision and efficiency of social governance.

Xi noted that development and stability were the absolute principles, so both should be dealt with by strong hands.

“We should continue with social governance through socialism with Chinese characteristics, and become adept in converting the leadership of the Party and the advantages of our socialist system into advantages of social governance,” he stressed.

Xi asked for more efforts to improve social governance by socialism with Chinese characteristics to ensure that the people lead prosperous lives, society stays in order and the country enjoys long-term peace and stability.

Over the past five years, officials in the sector have come up with new ideas, mechanisms and methods, solving a number of major problems, improving the sense of security and satisfaction of the people, and contributing to a stable environment for reform and development, the president noted.

Premier Li Keqiang and Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli also attended the meeting. After the meeting, model individuals and units were recognized for their contributions to public security and social governance.

Surveys show that the public’s sense of security has improved in the past few years with their satisfaction index rising to 91.99 percent in 2016 from 87.55 percent in 2012.

Police nationwide held campaigns against terrorism, telecom fraud, underground banks, personal information infringement and crimes related to guns and drugs, among others.

China has also made use of Internet technology in its social governance.

The Ministry of Public Security has helped find 1,274 missing children with the help of a system called “Tuanyuan,” or reunion, a pop-up platform on which information on 1,317 missing children has been shared since its launch in 2016.

Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday stressed in Beijing that strengthening and innovating social governance would better solve various social problems.

He told representatives from the comprehensive management of public securities sector across the country to make social governance more systematic, scientific, intelligent, and in accordance with rule of law.

China on Tuesday released a new system to assess the way local governments manage poverty relief funds, which will give with more weighting to the effectiveness of the funds.

The effectiveness appraisal accounts for 62 points in a 100-point system, followed by supervision with 20 points, fund allocation with 10 points and capital input with eight points, according to a Ministry of Finance (MOF) document.

Compared with the previous system published ten years ago, the new one puts more emphasis on the results of poverty relief measures, with indices on the reduction of poor people and precise fund use, said Wu Qixiu, an MOF official.

Governments with 90 points or more will be ranked “excellent,” while those under 60 will fail the assessment. The results will be included in government performance evaluations and will influence future fund allocation.

The new system will take effect at the end of September.