title: Dental care coverage among older Americans.
abstract: Dental expenditures increased by almost $20 billion during the past twenty years. A contributing factor to this growth was the rapid proliferation of dental insurance. Unfortunately, dental care coverage is not uniformly distributed. For instance, while many younger Americans are offered assistance in paying for dental care through dental insurance, few older Americans are offered coverage because it is usually job related. Whereas several studies reported that dental care coverage is directly related to dental utilization, no significant empirical study of multiple factors has shown who is most likely to have dental insurance. The purpose of this study was to determine who is most apt to have dental insurance and what factors may influence or be related to having dental care coverage. Findings indicated that individuals with low income, large families, those having a poor health status, who are not married, are older, unemployed or female were least likely to have dental care coverage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Health Care Delivery, School of Dentistry, University of Maryland, Baltimore 21201, USA.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Manski
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D016321:Dental Care for Aged / Q000191:economics*; D004522:Educational Status; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007347:Insurance, Dental; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D011203:Poverty; D012737:Sex Factors; D014478:Unemployment; D014481:United States