Wide inequalities in oral health found in USA
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- Published: Monday, 03 March 2014 08:06
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The uptake rate of preventative dental care increased over a ten-year period in the United States, but there remains a large disparity among ethnic groups, reports one of the largest and most comprehensive studies on the subject, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Public Health.
In a new study, Professor Bei Wu, Director for International Research at Duke University's School of Nursing, and her colleagues analysed self-reported oral health behaviours of almost 650,000 middle-aged and elderly Americans in a phone survey conducted between 1999 to 2008 by the National Center for Statistics and Prevention. This study is the first to compare dental care between Caucasians, Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.
Key findings include:
- People with health insurance were 138% more likely to receive preventive dental care.
- Women were 33% more likely to receive preventive dental care than men.
- 77% of Asian Americans and 76% of Caucasians reported receiving preventive dental care in 2008. Hispanics, Native Americans, and African Americans, were significantly less likely (62%, 62%, and 57% of interviewees, respectively) to receive preventive dental care.
- Differences between Caucasians and other ethnic groups (except African Americans) in access to preventive dental care can be explained by socioeconomic differences such as income, education, and having health insurance.
- African Americans' reduced access to preventive dental health might be due to an insufficient number of culturally competent dental care professionals, and to a lack of awareness of oral health and dental care services within this ethnic group.
- Many Native Americans in reservations receive inadequate dental care, partly because not enough dental care professionals are motivated to work for the Indian Health Services.
- Smokers were less likely to receive preventive dental health care. This is of particular concern since oral health is negatively affected by tobacco use.
The researchers conclude that it is imperative to develop public dental health programs that target middle-aged and elderly Americans, improve dental care access, and to train a dental workforce that is culturally competent.
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