Dental utilization disparities in a Jewish context: reasons and potential solutions.

UNLABELLED: Demographic discrepancies in dental healthcare utilization and access to care have historically been studied and attributed to such factors as socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity. Such potential discrepancies and contributing factors amongst the Jewish population have been little explore. OBJECTIVE: To examine the frequency of dental visits among Jewish subgroups and explored possible explanatory factors for differences in dental healthcare utilization, such as financial constraints, dental anxiety, religious perspectives on health, lack of perceived need, poor accessibility, and scheduling conflicts. BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: A religiously diverse non-clinical sample of 169 Jews completed measures on demographics, dental visit frequency, dental anxiety, and general religiousness. RESULTS: On average, Orthodox Jews visit the dentist less often than non-Orthodox Jews (OR = 0.43) and Ultra-Orthodox Jews markedly less (OR = 0.23). Moreover, differences between these groups in dental visits were largely mediated by differences in dental anxiety, poor accessibility, lack of perceived need and scheduling conflicts. CONCLUSION: These results identify a population that is at risk for poor oral health and suggests possible preventive and corrective interventions.

Members' Feedback After a Spiritual Group Psychotherapy for Inpatient, Residential, and Intensive Treatment (SPIRIT).

Six hundred and fifty-four inpatients who participated in a spiritual group therapy intervention provided qualitative feedback regarding what helped them and what could be improved. Patients revealed that enjoying a sense of connection with other people and a sense of openness in the groups and simply talking about spirituality with other people was helpful to them. Many group members requested that groups go on for a longer amount of time than 12 sessions, to have longer sessions, and to have more frequent meetings. In addition, members described improvements that could be made to the group, including members' being better screened, leaders preventing individual members from dominating discussions or from being quiet or leaving the group early, and members' wanting more structure as well as more open discussion. The findings highlight the importance of connection, openness, and spirituality when implementing spiritual group interventions in hospital settings. Implications for future research, training, and clinical interventions are discussed.