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. 2019 Sep 10;16(18):3344.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16183344.

Determinants of Postponed Dental Visits Due to Costs: Evidence from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Germany

Ghazal Aarabi  1 , Richelle Valdez  1 , Kristin Spinler  1 , Carolin Walther  1 , Udo Seedorf  1 , Guido Heydecke  1 , Hans-Helmut König  2 , André Hajek  3
Affiliations

Determinants of Postponed Dental Visits Due to Costs: Evidence from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Germany

Ghazal Aarabi et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

High costs are an important reason patients postpone dental visits, which can lead to serious medical consequences. However, little is known about the determinants of postponing visits due to financial constraints longitudinally. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the determinants of postponing dental visits due to costs in older adults in Germany longitudinally. Data from wave 5 and 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe was used. The occurrence of postponed dental visits due to costs in the last 12 months served as the outcome measure. Socioeconomic and health-related explanatory variables were included. Conditional fixed effects logistic regression models were used (n = 362). Regressions showed that the likelihood of postponing dental visits due to costs increased with lower age, less chronic disease, and lower income. The outcome measure was neither associated with marital status nor self-rated health. Identifying the factors associated with postponed dental visits due to costs might help to mitigate this challenge. In the long term, this might help to maintain the well-being of older individuals.

Keywords: dental care; dental health services; dental visits; health services accessibility.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

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