Social Decision-Making Analysis: A General Approach to Inform Decisions on Resources in the Public Sector.

OBJECTIVES: Public expenditure aims to achieve social objectives by improving a range of socially valuable attributes of benefit (arguments in a social welfare function). Public expenditure is typically allocated to public sector budgets, where budget holders are tasked with meeting a subset of social objectives. METHODS: Decision makers require an evidence-based assessment of whether a proposed investment is likely to be worthwhile given existing levels of public expenditure. However, others also require some assessment of whether the overall level and allocation of public expenditure are appropriate. This article proposes a more general theoretical framework for economic evaluation that addresses both these questions. RESULTS: Using a stylized example of the economic evaluation of a new intervention in a simplified UK context, we show that this more general framework can support decisions beyond the approval or rejection of single projects. It shows that broader considerations about the level and allocation of public expenditure are possible and necessary when evaluating specific investments, which requires evidence of the range of benefits offered by marginal changes in different types of public expenditure and normative choices of how the attributes of benefit gained and forgone are valued. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed framework shows how to assess the value of a proposed investment and whether and how the overall level of public expenditure and its allocation across public sector budgets might be changed. It highlights that cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis can be viewed as special cases of this framework, identifying the weakness with each.

Cost-effectiveness of 5 fraction and partial breast radiotherapy for early breast cancer in the UK: model-based multi-trial analysis.

PURPOSE: We estimated the cost-effectiveness of 4 radiotherapy modalities to treat early breast cancer in the UK. In a subgroup of patients eligible for all modalities, we compared whole-breast (WB) and partial breast (PB) radiotherapy delivered in either 15 (WB15F, PB15F) or 5 fractions (WB5F, PB5F). In a subgroup ineligible for PB radiotherapy, we compared WB15F to WB5F. METHODS: We developed a Markov cohort model to simulate lifetime healthcare costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for each modality. This was informed by the clinical analysis of two non-inferiority trials (FAST Forward and IMPORT LOW) and supplemented with external literature. The primary analysis assumed that radiotherapy modality influences health only through its impact on locoregional recurrence and radiotherapy-related adverse events. RESULTS: In the primary analysis, PB5F had the least cost and greatest expected QALYs. WB5F had the least cost and the greatest expected QALYs in those only eligible for WB radiotherapy. Applying a cost-effectiveness threshold of £15,000/QALY, there was a 62% chance that PB5F was the cost-effective alternative in the PB eligible group, and there was a 100% chance that WB5F was cost-effective in the subgroup ineligible for PB radiotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: Hypofractionation to 5 fractions and partial breast radiotherapy modalities offer potentially important benefits to the UK health system.

Distributional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Health Technologies: Data Requirements and Challenges.

Governments and health technology assessment agencies are putting greater focus on and efforts in understanding and addressing health inequities. Cost-effectiveness analyses are used to evaluate the costs and health gains of different interventions to inform the decision-making process on funding of new treatments. Distributional cost-effectiveness analysis (DCEA) is an extension of cost-effectiveness analysis that quantifies the equity impact of funding new treatments. Key challenges for the routine and consistent implementation of DCEA are the lack of clearly defined equity concerns from decision makers and endorsed measures to define equity subgroups and the availability of evidence that allows analysis of differences in data inputs associated with the equity characteristics of interest. In this article, we detail the data gaps and challenges to build robust DCEA analysis routinely in health technology assessment and suggest actions to overcome these hurdles.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of public health interventions with impacts on health and criminal justice: An applied cross-sectoral analysis of an alcohol misuse intervention.

Cost-effectiveness analyses of health care programs often focus on maximizing health and ignore nonhealth impacts. Assessing the cost-effectiveness of public health interventions from a narrow health care perspective would likely underestimate their full impact, and potentially lead to inefficient decisions about funding. The aim of this study is to provide a practical application of a recently proposed framework for the economic evaluation of public health interventions, evaluating an intervention to reduce alcohol misuse in criminal offenders. This cross-sectoral analysis distinguishes benefits and opportunity costs for different sectors, makes explicit the value judgments required to consider alternative perspectives, and can inform heterogeneous decision makers with different objectives in a transparent manner. Three interventions of increasing intensity are compared: client information leaflet, brief advice, and brief lifestyle counseling. Health outcomes are measured in quality-adjusted life-years and criminal justice outcomes in reconvictions. Costs considered include intervention costs, costs to the NHS and costs to the criminal justice system. The results are presented for four different perspectives: "narrow" health care perspective; criminal justice system perspective; "full" health care perspective; and joint "full" health and criminal justice perspective. Conclusions and recommendations differ according to the normative judgment on the appropriate perspective for the evaluation.

Utility of State-Based Basic Screening Survey Reports for National Oral Health Surveillance in Older Adults.

INTRODUCTION: Untreated dental disease and resulting tooth loss can diminish quality of life for older adults by limiting food choices and discouraging social interaction. Before the Basic Screening Survey (BSS) for older adults, no clinical data were available to monitor the oral health of older adults in long-term care (LTC) facilities at the national level or older adults overall at the state level. Although BSS is widely used, no guidelines exist to ensure the validity, reliability, and comparability of survey information across states. We examined BSS content to help establish reporting guidelines and synthesized findings across states for older adults living in LTC. METHODS: We systematically reviewed BSS reports published from 2011-2019, assessing how oral health outcomes were measured and reported. For reports that included statewide estimates for LTC residents, we calculated the mean, median, and ranges of 3 preventable oral health conditions and 4 indicators of tooth loss. RESULTS: We found wide variation in reporting of sampling, screening, and statistical methods, as well as in indicators of tooth loss. Median prevalence of untreated tooth decay and edentulism (total tooth loss) among LTC adults in 11 states was almost twice that for community-dwelling adults in a national survey. CONCLUSIONS: The substantial variation in BSS reporting highlights the potential benefits of adopting standardized guidance, which could improve the utility of BSS. Poor oral health outcomes among LTC residents underscore the importance of systematic monitoring of the oral health of this vulnerable population.

Prevalence of and Changes in Tooth Loss Among Adults Aged ≥50 Years with Selected Chronic Conditions - United States, 1999-2004 and 2011-2016.

Extensive tooth loss can lead to poor diet resulting in weight loss or obesity (1). It can also detract from physical appearance and impede speech, factors that can restrict social contact, inhibit intimacy, and lower self-esteem (1). Chronic medical conditions and oral conditions share common risk factors (2). Persons with chronic conditions are more likely to have untreated dental disease, which can result in tooth loss. Three measures of tooth loss during 1999-2004 and 2011-2016 were estimated by comparing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for each period among adults aged ≥50 years with selected chronic conditions.* The three measures were 1) edentulism (having no teeth); 2) severe tooth loss (having eight or fewer teeth) (3); and 3) lacking functional dentition (having <20 teeth out of 28, which is considered a full set for the purpose of NHANES assessments) (4). During 2011-2016, prevalences of edentulism and severe tooth loss were ≥50% higher among adults with fair or poor general health, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, diabetes, emphysema, heart disease, liver condition, or stroke than among those with those adults without the chronic condition. Lack of functional dentition was also more prevalent among adults with chronic conditions than among persons without these conditions. Tooth loss is preventable with self-care and routine dental visits (1). To encourage these behaviors, public health professionals can educate the public about the association between having a chronic condition and tooth loss, and primary care providers can educate their patients about the importance of healthy behaviors and screen and refer them for needed dental care.

Distributional cost effectiveness analysis of West Yorkshire low emission zone policies.

Alternative strategies can reduce road vehicle emissions, with differential effects on exposure across population groups. We compare alternative strategies in West Yorkshire using a framework for economic evaluation that considers multiple perspectives and that takes account of the distribution of health outcomes. Exposure to pollutants by area is converted, via dose response relationships, into disease averted. Health benefits and National Health Service costs from diseases are estimated conditional on population demographics and index of multiple deprivation. The net health benefits from alternative strategies are expressed as distributions of quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE), which are compared using dominance criteria and societal aversion to health inequality. Net production is estimated from intervention costs and the effects of health improvement on production and consumption. Social care outcomes are estimated from health improvement among care recipients and changes in care expenditure. A switch to less polluting private vehicles is dominant in terms of the distribution of QALE and social care outcomes but not consumption. Inclusion of health inequality aversion alters the rank order compared with prioritisation on health maximisation. The results were sensitive to the magnitude of health opportunity costs, the level of inequality aversion, and the proportion of intervention cost that generates health opportunity cost.

Methods to promote equity in health resource allocation in low- and middle-income countries: an overview.

Unfair differences in healthcare access, utilisation, quality or health outcomes exist between and within countries around the world. Improving health equity is a stated objective for many governments and international organizations. We provide an overview of the major tools that have been developed to measure, evaluate and promote health equity, along with the data required to operationalise them.Methods are organised into four key policy questions facing decision-makers: (i) what is the current level of inequity in health; (ii) does government health expenditure benefit the worst-off; (iii) can government health expenditure more effectively promote equity; and (iv) which interventions provide the best value for money in reducing inequity.Benefit incidence analysis can be used to estimate the distribution of current public health sector expenditure, with geographical resource allocation formulae and health system reform being the main government policy levers for improving equity. Techniques from the economic evaluation literature, such as extended and distributional cost-effectiveness analysis can be used to identify 'best buy' interventions from a health equity perspective. A range of inequality metrics, from gap measures and slope indices to concentration indices and regression analysis, can be applied to these approaches to evaluate changes in equity.Methods from the economics literature can provide policymakers with a toolkit for addressing multiple aspects of health equity, from outcomes to financial protection, and can be adapted to accommodate data commonly available in low- and middle-income settings.

High-throughput, non-invasive prenatal testing for fetal rhesus D status in RhD-negative women: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: High-throughput non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for fetal Rhesus D (RhD) status could avoid unnecessary treatment with anti-D immunoglobulin for RhD-negative women found to be carrying an RhD-negative fetus. We aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of high-throughput NIPT for fetal RhD status in RhD-negative women not known to be sensitized to the RhD antigen, by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: Prospective cohort studies of high-throughput NIPT used to determine fetal RhD status were included. The eligible population were pregnant women who were RhD negative and not known to be sensitized to RhD antigen. The index test was high-throughput, NIPT cell-free fetal DNA tests of maternal plasma used to determine fetal RhD status. The reference standard considered was serologic cord blood testing at birth. Databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Science Citation Index were searched up to February 2016. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts and assessed full texts identified as potentially relevant. Risk of bias was assessed using QUADAS-2. The bivariate and hierarchical summary receiver-operating characteristic (HSROC) models were fitted to calculate summary estimates of sensitivity, specificity, false positive and false negative rates, and the associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: A total of 3921 references records were identified through electronic searches. Eight studies were included in the systematic review. Six studies were judged to be at low risk of bias. The HSROC models demonstrated high diagnostic performance of high-throughput NIPT testing for women tested at or after 11 weeks gestation. In the primary analysis for diagnostic accuracy, women with an inconclusive test result were treated as having tested positive. The false negative rate (incorrectly classed as RhD negative) was 0.34% (95% CI 0.15 to 0.76) and the false positive rate (incorrectly classed as RhD positive) was 3.86% (95% CI 2.54 to 5.82). There was limited evidence for non-white women and multiple pregnancies. CONCLUSIONS: High-throughput NIPT is sufficiently accurate to detect fetal RhD status in RhD-negative women and would considerably reduce unnecessary treatment with routine anti-D immunoglobulin. The applicability of these findings to non-white women and women with multiple pregnancies is uncertain.

Aggregate Distributional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Health Technologies.

BACKGROUND: Health inequalities can be partially addressed through the range of treatments funded by health systems. Nevertheless, although health technology assessment agencies assess the overall balance of health benefits and costs, no quantitative assessment of health inequality impact is consistently undertaken. OBJECTIVES: To assess the inequality impact of technologies recommended under the NICE single technology appraisal process from 2012 to 2014 using an aggregate distributional cost-effectiveness framework. METHODS: Data on health benefits, costs, and patient populations were extracted from the NICE website. Benefits for each technology were distributed to social groups using the observed socioeconomic distribution of hospital utilization for the targeted disease. Inequality measures and estimates of cost-effectiveness were compared using the health inequality impact plane and combined using social welfare indices. RESULTS: Twenty-seven interventions were evaluated. Fourteen interventions were estimated to increase population health and reduce health inequality, 8 to reduce population health and increase health inequality, and 5 to increase health and increase health inequality. Among the latter 5, social welfare analysis, using inequality aversion parameters reflecting high concern for inequality, indicated that the health gain outweighs the negative health inequality impact. CONCLUSIONS: The methods proposed offer a way of estimating the health inequality impacts of new health technologies. The methods do not allow for differences in technology-specific utilization and health benefits, but require less resources and data than conducting full distributional cost-effectiveness analysis. They can provide useful quantitative information to help policy makers consider how far new technologies are likely to reduce or increase health inequalities.

A one stop shop for cost-effectiveness evidence? Recommendations for improving Disease Control Priorities.

Setting out a health benefits package (HBP) of interventions to be prioritised for funding is an important step towards achieving universal health coverage in low and middle income countries. The 3rd version of the Disease Control Priorities (DCP3) database, and other similar databases, aim to establishing a single point of reference ("one stop shop") for cost effectiveness evidence to inform HBP design and other policy making. We reflect upon our experiences in using DCP3 for HBP design and offer suggestions for improving the future reporting of cost-effectiveness evidence. We appraise DCP3 based on generalisability, level of detail, and accessibility. We find that DCP and similar initiatives should be commended for the systematic assessment of a vast array of cost-effectiveness studies-the magnitude of such an endeavour is impressive in its own right. However, there are flaws. In future, providing disaggregated estimates of costs and effects, quantifying uncertainty, and systematically assessing the context in which estimates apply would make this evidence more useful for decision makers.

Awareness Among US Adults of Dental Sealants for Caries Prevention.

INTRODUCTION: Dental sealants applied in childhood can help prevent caries, but knowledge of the availability of sealants and their function is not widespread. We assessed knowledge of dental sealants among US adults and adult parents of children younger than 18 and the differences in knowledge among demographic and socioeconomic groups. METHODS: We used data on 3,550 respondents to the 2015 FallStyles B survey of noninstitutionalized US adults aged 18 or older. Authors constructed estimates by using weights provided to reflect the distribution of the US population. Knowledge of dental sealants was assessed by sex, age, race/ethnicity, education, household income, and parental status. Multivariate analysis was conducted by using a main effects logistic regression model. RESULTS: Overall, 46.3% of adults and 55.1% of parents of children younger than 18 had knowledge of dental sealants. Sealant knowledge was highest among parents, women, respondents aged 45 to 59, and respondents with incomes greater than 200% of the federal poverty level and more than a high school education. Non-Hispanic blacks had less than half the odds of non-Hispanic whites of having knowledge of sealants (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.4), and nonparents had half the odds as parents (OR = 0.5) of knowing. The strongest predictors of parental sealant knowledge were race/ethnicity, sex, and income. CONCLUSION: Disparities in sealant knowledge correspond to disparities in sealant prevalence. Increasing knowledge among low-income and racial/ethnic minority parents could reduce disparities in sealant prevalence and untreated caries.

Impact of caregiver overnight stay on postoperative outcomes.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of having a patient-designated caregiver remain overnight with ambulatory extended recovery patients on early postoperative clinical outcomes. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing surgery requiring overnight stay in a highly resourced free-standing oncology ambulatory surgery center. Postoperative outcomes in patients who had caregivers stay with them overnight were compared with outcomes in those who did not. All other care was standardized. Primary outcomes were postoperative length of stay, hospital readmission rates, urgent care center (UCC) visits within 30 days and perioperative complication rates. FINDINGS: Among patients staying overnight, 2,462 (57 percent) were accompanied by overnight caregivers. In this group, time to discharge was significantly lower. Readmissions (though rare) were slightly higher, though the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.059). No difference in early (<30 day) complications or UCC visits was noted. Presence of a caregiver overnight was not associated with important differences in outcomes, though further research in a less well-structured environment is likely to show a more robust benefit. Caregivers are still recommended to stay overnight if that is their preference as no harm was identified. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This study is unique in its evaluation of the clinical impact of having a caregiver stay overnight with ambulatory surgery patients. Little research has focused on the direct impact of the caregiver on patient outcomes, especially in the ambulatory setting. With increased adoption of minimally invasive surgical techniques and enhanced recovery pathways, a larger number of patients are eligible for short-stay ambulatory surgery. Factors that impact discharge and early postoperative complications are important.

Multilevel model to estimate county-level untreated dental caries among US children aged 6-9years using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Because conducting population-based oral health screening is resource intensive, oral health data at small-area levels (e.g., county-level) are not commonly available. We applied the multilevel logistic regression and poststratification method to estimate county-level prevalence of untreated dental caries among children aged 6-9years in the United States using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2010 linked with various area-level data at census tract, county and state levels. We validated model-based national estimates against direct estimates from NHANES. We also compared model-based estimates with direct estimates from select State Oral Health Surveys (SOHS) at state and county levels. The model with individual-level covariates only and the model with individual-, census tract- and county-level covariates explained 7.2% and 96.3% respectively of overall county-level variation in untreated caries. Model-based county-level prevalence estimates ranged from 4.9% to 65.2% with median of 22.1%. The model-based national estimate (19.9%) matched the NHANES direct estimate (19.8%). We found significantly positive correlations between model-based estimates for 8-year-olds and direct estimates from the third-grade State Oral Health Surveys (SOHS) at state level for 34 states (Pearson coefficient: 0.54, P=0.001) and SOHS estimates at county level for 53 New York counties (Pearson coefficient: 0.38, P=0.006). This methodology could be a useful tool to characterize county-level disparities in untreated dental caries among children aged 6-9years and complement oral health surveillance to inform public health programs especially when local-level data are not available although the lack of external validation due to data unavailability should be acknowledged.

Gaming to improve vision: 21st century self-monitoring for patients with age-related macular degeneration.

IMPORTANCE: Improved vision self-monitoring tools are required for people at risk of neovascular complications from age related macular degeneration (AMD). BACKGROUND: to report the self-monitoring habits of participants with intermediate AMD using the Amsler grid chart, and the use of personal electronic devices and gameplay in this over 50 year old cohort. DESIGN: single-centre descriptive study carried out at the Centre for Eye Research (CERA), Melbourne, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: 140 participants over 50 years of age, with a diagnosis of intermediate AMD and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of ≥6/12 in each eye. METHODS: structured questionnaire survey of participants who were enrolled in natural history of AMD studies at CERA. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: frequency of vision self-monitoring using the Amsler grid chart, and frequency of general use of personal electronic devices and gameplay. RESULTS: Of 140 participants with mean age of 70.5 years, 83.6% used an Amsler grid chart, but only 39.3% used it once per week. Most participants (91.4%) used one or more personal electronic devices. Of these, over half (54.7%) played games on them, among whom 39% played games once a day. Of participants aged 50-69 years, 92% (95%CI 85.1-98.9) were willing to play a game to monitor their vision, compared to 78% (95%CI 69.0-87.0) of those aged 70 years and older (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: a large proportion of AMD patients already use personal electronic devices. Gamification techniques are likely to increase compliance with self-monitoring, leading to earlier detection in the next generation of patients with neovascular AMD.

Optimal Antimalarial Dose Regimens for Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine with or without Azithromycin in Pregnancy Based on Population Pharmacokinetic Modeling.

Optimal dosing of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) as intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy remains to be established, particularly when coadministered with azithromycin (AZI). To further characterize SP pharmacokinetics in pregnancy, plasma concentration-time data from 45 nonpregnant and 45 pregnant women treated with SP-AZI (n = 15 in each group) and SP-chloroquine (n = 30 in each group) were analyzed. Population nonlinear mixed-effect pharmacokinetic models were developed for pyrimethamine (PYR), sulfadoxine (SDOX), and N-acetylsulfadoxine (the SDOX metabolite NASDOX), and potential covariates were included. Pregnancy increased the relative clearance (CL/F) of PYR, SDOX, and NASDOX by 48, 29, and 70%, respectively, as well as the relative volumes of distribution (V/F) of PYR (46 and 99%) and NASDOX (46%). Coadministration of AZI resulted in a greater increase in PYR CL/F (80%) and also increased NASDOX V/F by 76%. Apparent differences between these results and those of published studies of SP disposition may reflect key differences in study design, including the use of an early postpartum follow-up study rather than a nonpregnant comparator group. Simulations based on the final population model demonstrated that, compared to conventional single-dose SP in nonpregnant women, two such doses given 24 h apart should ensure that pregnant women have similar drug exposure, while three daily SP doses may be required if SP is given with AZI. The results of past and ongoing trials using recommended adult SP doses with or without AZI in pregnant women may need to be interpreted in light of these findings and consideration given to using increased doses in future trials.

Who bears the cost of NICE public health recommendations?

BACKGROUND: In the UK, NICE issues guidance on public health initiatives. Failure to report which sectors of the economy are affected by their implementation precludes the appropriate accounting for the full opportunity costs, and has the potential to result in erroneous decision making and inefficient budgetary planning. SOURCES OF DATA: We reviewed all NICE public health guidances available at the time of research, categorizing the sector on which the cost burden of the public health initiatives fall and the extent to which this burden was estimated. AREAS OF AGREEMENT: The majority of guidances were determined to be associated with a cost burden on the NHS (n = 48) and local authorities' public health spend (n = 47). AREAS OF CONTROVERSY: Explicit identification and quantification of cost burden by sector of the economy was reported for only eight guidances. GROWING POINTS: Increasing numbers of research studies are developing methods to robustly consider the implications of cross sector budget impacts. AREAS TIMELY FOR DEVELOPING RESEARCH: Future NICE guidance should report disaggregated costs across the sectors where they fall. Further research is needed to conceptualize the opportunity cost of financial burdens falling on non-health budgets before optimal decision making in public health is possible.

Using Cost-Effectiveness Analysis to Address Health Equity Concerns.

This articles serves as a guide to using cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) to address health equity concerns. We first introduce the "equity impact plane," a tool for considering trade-offs between improving total health-the objective underpinning conventional CEA-and equity objectives, such as reducing social inequality in health or prioritizing the severely ill. Improving total health may clash with reducing social inequality in health, for example, when effective delivery of services to disadvantaged communities requires additional costs. Who gains and who loses from a cost-increasing health program depends on differences among people in terms of health risks, uptake, quality, adherence, capacity to benefit, and-crucially-who bears the opportunity costs of diverting scarce resources from other uses. We describe two main ways of using CEA to address health equity concerns: 1) equity impact analysis, which quantifies the distribution of costs and effects by equity-relevant variables, such as socioeconomic status, location, ethnicity, sex, and severity of illness; and 2) equity trade-off analysis, which quantifies trade-offs between improving total health and other equity objectives. One way to analyze equity trade-offs is to count the cost of fairer but less cost-effective options in terms of health forgone. Another method is to explore how much concern for equity is required to choose fairer but less cost-effective options using equity weights or parameters. We hope this article will help the health technology assessment community navigate the practical options now available for conducting equity-informative CEA that gives policymakers a better understanding of equity impacts and trade-offs.

Disparities in Preventive Dental Care Among Children in Georgia.

INTRODUCTION: We compared access to preventive dental care among low-income children eligible for public dental insurance to access among children with private dental insurance and/or high family income (>400% of the federal poverty level) in Georgia, and the effect of policies toward increasing access to dental care for low-income children. METHODS: We used multiple sources of data (eg, US Census, Georgia Board of Dentistry) to estimate, by census tract, measures of preventive dental care access in 2015 for children aged 0 to 18 years. Measures were percentage of met need, 1-way travel distance to a dentist, and scarcity of dentists. We used an optimization model to estimate access, quantify disparities, and evaluate policies. RESULTS: About 1.5 million children were eligible for public insurance; 600,000 had private insurance and/or high family income. Across census tracts, average met need was 59% for low-income children and 96% for high-income children; for rural census tracts, these values were 33% and 84%, respectively. The average 1-way travel distance for all census tracts was 3.7 miles for high-income and/or privately insured children and 17.2 miles for low-income children; for rural census tracts, these values were 11.6 and 32.9 miles, respectively. Increasing dentists' acceptance of public insurance-eligible children increased met need more in rural areas than in urban areas. To achieve 100% met need in rural tracts, however, an 80% participation rate among dentists would be required. CONCLUSION: Across census tracts, high-income children had better access to preventive dental care than low-income children had. Identifying tracts with disparities in access could result in more efficient allocation of public health dental resources.

Vital Signs: Dental Sealant Use and Untreated Tooth Decay Among U.S. School-Aged Children.

BACKGROUND: Tooth decay is one of the greatest unmet treatment needs among children. Pain and suffering associated with untreated dental disease can lead to problems with eating, speaking, and learning. School-based dental sealant programs (SBSP) deliver a highly effective intervention to prevent tooth decay in children who might not receive regular dental care. SBSPs benefits exceed their costs when they target children at high risk for tooth decay. METHODS: CDC used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2014 to estimate current prevalences of sealant use and untreated tooth decay among low-income (≤185% of federal poverty level) and higher-income children aged 6-11 years and compared these estimates with 1999-2004 NHANES data. The mean number of decayed and filled first molars (DFFM) was estimated for children with and without sealants. Averted tooth decay resulting from increasing sealant use prevalence was also estimated. All reported differences are significant at p<0.05. RESULTS: From 1999-2004 to 2011-2014, among low- and higher-income children, sealant use prevalence increased by 16.2 and 8.8 percentage points to 38.7% and 47.8%, respectively. Among low-income children aged 7-11 years, the mean DFFM was almost three times higher among children without sealants (0.82) than among children with sealants. Approximately 6.5 million low-income children could potentially benefit from the delivery of sealants through SBSP. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE: The prevalence of dental sealant use has increased; however, most children have not received sealants. Increasing sealant use prevalence could substantially reduce untreated decay, associated problems, and dental treatment costs.