Dental Care Utilization for Examination and Regional Deprivation

• Main Authors: Cheol-Sin Kim (Author), Sun-Young Han (Author), Seung Eun Lee (Author), Jeong-Hee Kang (Author), Chul-Woung Kim (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Korean Society for Preventive Medicine, 2015-07-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 1975-8375; 2233-4521; 10.3961/jpmph.15.026
• Keywords: Utilization; Dental care; Dental health surveys; Residence characteristics; Multilevel analysis; Medicine; R; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Vol 48, Iss 4, Pp 195-202 (2015)

Objectives: Receiving proper dental care plays a significant role in maintaining good oral health. We investigated the relationship between regional deprivation and dental care utilization. Methods: Multilevel logistic regression was used to identify the relationship between the regional deprivation level and dental care utilization purpose, adjusting for individual-level variables, in adults aged 19+ in the 2008 Korean Community Health Survey (n=220 258). Results: Among Korean adults, 12.8% used dental care to undergo examination and 21.0% visited a dentist for other reasons. In the final model, regional deprivation level was associated with significant variations in dental care utilization for examination (p<0.001). However, this relationship was not shown with dental care utilization for other reasons in the final model. Conclusions: This study's findings suggest that policy interventions should be considered to reduce regional variations in rates of dental care utilization for examination.