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Economic aspects of dental care in Finnish health centers
Author(s) -
Utriainen Pekka,
Widström Eeva
Publication year - 1990
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/j.1600-0528.1990.tb00066.x
Subject(s) - medicine , subsidy , productivity , dental care , service (business) , public health , dental health , environmental health , health care , dentistry , nursing , economic growth , marketing , business , economics , market economy
In recent years economic evaluations of publicly funded governmental and community based activities have become more common. Although the Public Dental Service in Finland has been in operation for 17 yr, little is known of the effectiveness of the system. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness, output and costs of dental care using available data from 34 randomly selected health centers during 1982–85. Great differences were found in running expenses and productivity between the health centers studied. The study indicated that dental care arrangements tended to be more expensive in communities with high governmental subsidies than in those with low ones. The ratio of chairside assistants to dentists was also shown to have a statistically significant positive correlation with the cost of a dental visit.