The effects of social class and dental attendance on oral health.
The relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and oral health is well-established. We investigated whether the association between SES and the number of sound teeth in adults is explained by dental attendance patterns, in turn determined by the effect of SES on barriers to dental attendance. Data on 3817 participants from the 1998 Adult Dental Health Survey in the UK were analyzed. Using structural equation modeling, we found a model with 4 factors (aging, SES, attendance-profile, and barriers-to-dental-attendance) providing an adequate fit to the covariance matrix of the 9 covariates. The final model suggests that the association between SES and the number of sound teeth in adults in the UK is partially explained by the pathway [SES --> barriers-to-dental-attendance --> dental-attendance-profile --> number-of-sound-teeth]. A direct relationship, SES --> number-of-sound-teeth, is also significant.
Donaldson
A N
AN
King's College London Dental Institute, Weston Education Centre, Off 262 Cutcombe Road, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RJ, UK. nora.donaldson@kcl.ac.uk
Everitt
B
B
Newton
T
T
Steele
J
J
Sherriff
M
M
Bower
E
E
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003729:Dental Care / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009909:Oral Health; D012923:Social Class; D013218:State Dentistry / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016312:Treatment Refusal; D006113:United Kingdom