Income and wealth as correlates of socioeconomic disparity in dentist visits among adults aged 20 years and over in the United States, 2011-2014

• Published in: BMC oral health Vol. 18; no. 1; p. 147
• Main Authors: Kailembo, Alexander, Quiñonez, Carlos, Lopez Mitnik, Gabriela V, Weintraub, Jane A, Stewart Williams, Jennifer, Preet, Raman, Iafolla, Timothy, Dye, Bruce A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 23.08.2018; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Age; Aged; Analysis; Attitude to Health; Dental care; Dental Care - economics; Dental caries; Dental health; dental utilization; Dental utilization, Dental visits; dental visits; Dentistry; Dentists; Disparities; Education; Ethnicity; Female; Health aspects; Health care policy; Health disparities; Health services; Health Status Disparities; Humans; Income; Income - statistics & numerical data; Inequalities; Male; Middle Aged; Minority & ethnic groups; Nutrition Surveys; Objectives; Oral diseases; Oral hygiene; Physician services utilization; Practice; Principal components analysis; Public health; Response rates; Social Class; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic position; Socioeconomics; Statistical analysis; United States; Wealth; United States; United States > US; Dental utilization, Dental visits; Disparities; Socioeconomic position; Income; Inequalities; Wealth
• ISSN: 1472-6831; 1472-6831
• DOI: 10.1186/s12903-018-0613-4

Most studies in the United States (US) have used income and education as socioeconomic indicators but there is limited information on other indicators, such as wealth. We aimed to assess how two socioeconomic status measures, income and wealth, compare as correlates of socioeconomic disparity in dentist visits among adults in the US. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2014 were used to calculate self-reported dental visit prevalence for adults aged 20 years and over living in the US. Prevalence ratios using Poisson regressions were conducted separately with income and wealth as independent variables. The dependent variable was not having a dentist visit in the past 12 months. Covariates included sociodemographic factors and untreated dental caries. Parsimonious models, including only statistically significant (p < 0.05) covariates, were derived. The Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) measured the relative statistical quality of the income and wealth models. Analyses were additionally stratified by race/ethnicity in response to statistically significant interactions. The prevalence of not having a dentist visit in the past 12 months among adults aged 20 years and over was 39%. Prevalence was highest in the poorest (58%) and lowest wealth (57%) groups. In the parsimonious models, adults in the poorest and lowest wealth groups were close to twice as likely to not have a dentist visit (RR 1.69; 95%CI: 1.51-1.90) and (RR 1.68; 95%CI: 1.52-1.85) respectively. In the income model the risk of not having a dentist visit were 16% higher in the age group 20-44 years compared with the 65+ year age group (RR 1.16; 95%CI: 1.04-1.30) but age was not statistically significant in the wealth model. The AIC scores were lower (better) for the income model. After stratifying by race/ethnicity, age remained a significant indicator for dentist visits for non-Hispanic whites, blacks, and Asians whereas age was not associated with dentist visits in the wealth model. Income and wealth are both indicators of socioeconomic disparities in dentist visits in the US, but both do not have the same impact in some populations in the US.