Relationship between dental insurance and dental treatment acceptance in older adult patients in Mashhad regions

Abstract

The effect of dental insurance on the ranking of dental needs in older adults has not been reported previously. We examined this effect using data obtained from a cross-sectional survey of older adults living in homes for the aged in Mashhad Region, Khorasan. History of dental insurance was obtained during interviews. Dental needs, assessed during clinical examinations, were ranked from no need to urgent need according to the guideline of the Iranian Dental Association. The associations between the rank of dental needs, dental insurance and other factors were analyzed with the Kruskal-Wallis test, χ2 test, analysis of variance and multiple logistic regressions. Of the 252 participants, 80 (31.7%) had been insured continuously since 2006, 69 (27.4%) had no need for dental treatment and 59 (23.4%) needed urgent dental care. More of the continuously insured than the uninsured residents were dentate (46/80 [57.5%] vs. 75/172 [43.6%], p = 0.04). Ranking of the need for care was not significantly influenced by dental insurance; need of any kind was explained by being dentate (odds ratio 12.3, 95% 15-confidence interval 5.6-27.3). © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information.