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Geographic variations in dental services provided to older adults in Ontario, Canada
Author(s) -
Locker D.,
Clarke M.
Publication year - 1999
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.1600-0528.1999.tb02021.x
Subject(s) - medicine , metropolitan area , longitudinal study , dental care , dental insurance , demography , geographic variation , oral health , location , gerontology , family medicine , environmental health , population , geography , geodesy , pathology , sociology
– In an initial study, Leake et al. (J Public Health Dent 1996; 52: 182–90) found that older Ontarians living in metropolitan communities received almost twice the amount of dental care than older Ontarians living in non‐metropolitan communities. Since data were collected for the 2 years prior to the enrolment of subjects in a longitudinal study, factors responsible for this variation could not be explored. This paper extends thesendings by examining the volume of dental services received by these subjects in the 3 years between the baseline and follow‐up phases of the longitudinal study. During this 3‐year period, geographic variations in the volume of services provided were also observed. In a regression analysis, geographic location remained a significant predictor of the number of services received after controlling for six other explanatory variables: insurance coverage, number of teeth, restorative treatment need, self‐rated oral health, regular dental visits and use of specialist services. Together, these explained only 24% of the variance in service provision. Since patient‐reported outcomes were better in the communities with higher volumes of provision, further research concerning the patient and dentist factors inuencing treatment provision is warranted.