Impact and cost of public health nurse telephone follow-up of school dental referrals.
The effect and cost of nursing follow-up services on school dental screening outcomes were investigated. Experimental and control groups were randomly assigned. A positive difference in dental visit rate occurred for all nurses, with the overall dentist visit-no visit, experimental-control odds ratio being 1.64 (95% CL = 1.15, 2.35). The service averaged 27.7 minutes and $8.92 per family contacted, suggesting that nursing follow-up increased dental care utilization after screening at low cost in this population.
D002140:California; D002648:Child; D003729:Dental Care / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses; D013689:Telephone