A multi-level analysis of factors affecting the unmet needs of dental care service: focusing on comparison by age group / 대한구강보건학회지

ABSTRACT

Objectives@#The high co-payment of dental care service providers reduces access to dental care and exacerbates health inequality among different social classes. Dental care services are affected by several socioeconomic factors including those related to the household, regional factors surrounding individuals, and individual factors. In this study, we identified household and regional factors that affect unmet dental care needs, after appropriately adjusting for individual-level and provided suggestions for improving the future coverage of dental and oral health care services. @*Methods@#Using the 2019 Korean Community Health Survey data, 101,718 middle-aged (40-64 years old) and 72,807 elderly (65 years and older) individuals were analyzed to identify the unmet needs of dental care services by age group. To identify factors affecting unmet dental care needs by age group, a multilevel analysis of the overall rate (T1) was conducted with three dependent variables (a)availability, (b)economic accessibility, and (c) acceptability. @*Results@#The unmet need for dental care service rate (T1) was 15.43% for middle-aged individuals, 14.73% overall, and 13.00% for the elderly. The results of the multi-level analysis indicated that at the household level, the number of household members aged 19 years and above had an effect on the overall (T1) total unmet needs of dental care services and economic accessibility for the middleaged group. At the regional level, economic accessibility influenced the degree of financial independence and the number of dental hospitals and clinics per population. @*Conclusions@#In order to reduce the unmet needs of dental care services, it is necessary to comprehensively consider not only individual-level factors but also household-level factors and regionallevel factors according to age.