Does dental service utilization drop during economic recession? The example of Finland, 1991-94.
After enjoying rapid economic growth in the 1980s, Finland suffered a deep economic recession that began in 1990. It has been claimed that recession and uneven subsidies influence the use of dental services negatively. Finnish adults born after 1956 and world war veterans are entitled to subsidized dental care either in the Public Dental Service (PDS) or in the private sector. Other adults pay their treatment costs.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the economic recession in Finland during the early 1990s affected the use of dental services.


METHODS
The data were collected by the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health using a method called CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview). The target population was non-institutionalized persons aged 25-79 years.


RESULTS
About one-third of those interviewed had visited a dentist during the previous 6 months and this proportion was stable during the years studied. Number of teeth, length of education, income and sex had the highest predictive values for use of dental services as analyzed by multiple logistic regression. Two-thirds had visited a private practitioner, one-third a PDS clinic and a small percentage some other dentist or denturist.


CONCLUSIONS
The results showed that the dental service utilization by Finns was stable during this period of economic downturn and only minor changes occurred in the mean number of visits. The most prominent change was seen in the youngest age group, among whom dental utilization decreased by almost 10%. The study indicated that subsidies do not strongly affect dental utilization today.
Suominen-Taipale
L
L
Department of Community Dental Health, Institute of Dentistry, University of Turku, Finland. liisa.suominentaipale@polaris.cc.utu.fi
Widström
E
E
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004245:DMF Index; D003752:Dental Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004467:Economics; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors