SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF DENTAL HEALTH SERVICE UTILISATION OF INDIAN ADULTS

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to find out the determinants of dental care utilisationamong the Indian adults inrelation to the socio-economic status.Methods: This study is done through survey on the health and health care services utilisation. In the survey,500 adults between 18-60 years of age was taken and stratified by geographic region, age and gender. Aquestionnaire was made to assess the individual variable on dental utilisation.Results:31.2% of Indian adults have visited a dentist last year. Statistically significant differences in dental care utilisation were observed in relation to demographic,socio economic status of life style. Logistic regression analysis showed that, gender, age, income, education, place of residence, private insurance coverage and self rated oral health are important determinants of dental service utilisation. Result from poisson regression analysis showed that lower income level correlated to lower number of dental visits, while having visited for treatment correlates to higher number of dental visits.Conclusion:The survey on Indian adults do not exhibit satisfactory results on dental visit.  This care sought is associated with need for treatment and not for prevention purpose. This results confirms the socio – economic  inequalities in dental service utilisation among Indian adults.