Abstract
Objectives: Oral diseases can be prevented, and early treatment through dental checkups is important. This study was investigated the relationship between dental checkups and unmet dental care needs in Korean adults. Methods: From the data of the 7th Korean national health and nutrition survey (2016-2017), the final 9,300 of the 16,277 participants selected as the method for extracting stratified colonies by complex sample design. A structured questionnaire interview was used, and chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed. Results: The relationship between dental checkups and unmet dental care needs for the last one year was analyzed by controlling demographic characteristics, variables related to health conditions, and “use of dental clinics for the last year.” The unmet dental care needs were 7.57 times higher (CI: 6.49-8.83) for non-users of dental clinics for 1 year, and 1.32 times (CI: 1.13-1.54) for dental checkups for 1 year compared to non-dental checkups patients. Conclusions: As described above, there was a close relationship between adult dental checkups and unmet dental care needs. Therefore, it is suggested that it is necessary to expand educational publicity and prepare policy strategies such as visiting dental checkups to improve the adult dental checkups.
Figures & Tables
Fig. 1. Flowchart of subjects selection
