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The experience of adverse childhood experiences and dental care in childhood
Author(s) -
Crouch Elizabeth,
Radcliff Elizabeth,
Nelson Joni,
Strompolis Melissa,
Martin Amy
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/cdoe.12389
Subject(s) - medicine , respondent , adverse childhood experiences , early childhood , health care , early childhood caries , injury prevention , descriptive statistics , family medicine , poison control , mental health , psychiatry , environmental health , oral health , developmental psychology , psychology , statistics , mathematics , political science , law , economics , economic growth
Abstract Objectives Routine preventive dental care is important to overall child health and well‐being. However, the experience of adversity in childhood may prevent children from getting adequate preventive care. This study seeks to explore how the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences ( ACE s) and the role of a protective adult may be associated with dental care utilization in childhood. Methods Data from the 2016 South Carolina Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System ( SC BRFSS ), which interviews adults eighteen year of age and older, were used in this study. Dental care utilization in childhood was measured as the adult retrospectively reported frequency of dental care in childhood: at least once every 2 years (adequate dental care) or less often than every 2 years (inadequate dental care). ACE s were determined by asking about each of respondent's childhood exposure to eleven childhood experiences, including divorce, parental incarceration, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness and emotional, physical or sexual abuse. The presence of a protective adult in childhood included respondents who had an adult who made them feel safe and protected during childhood. Descriptive and bivariate statistics explored differences in the adequacy of child dental care by ACE exposure, the presence of a protective adult and selected demographic characteristics. Multivariate regression models were used to examine the impact of counts and types of ACE s and the presence of a protective adult with inadequate childhood dental care. Results The unweighted study sample included 7079 respondents ageing from 18 to 79 years of age Sampling weights were used for all analyses. Among all respondents, 71.7% reported receiving adequate dental care during childhood; 28.3% responded that they received inadequate dental care. Adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, respondents who experienced four or more ACE s had a higher likelihood of inadequate dental care than respondents who reported no ACE s ( aOR 2.79; 95% CI 2.77‐2.82). The odds of reporting inadequate dental care were lower among those grew up with an adult who made them feel safe and protected ( aOR 0.38; 95% CI 0.37‐0.39). Conclusions The presence of protective factors may mitigate the effects of ACE s on paediatric dental care. This research contributes to the literature through the further identification of the role of dentists in identifying signs of abuse and neglect.