Who will serve? Assessing recruitment of underrepresented minority and low-income dental students to increase access to dental care.
This article uses data from the 2007 American Dental Education Association survey of dental school seniors to assess their intentions to serve underserved populations according to the students' underrepresented minority (URM) and income status. Dental school recruitment and retention programs that concentrate exclusively on URM students will not benefit most low-income students since 83 percent of them are not URM. Recruiting URM students leads to more graduating students with intentions to serve minorities. Whether the income of URM students was high or low, about half in each income group stated that more than 25 percent of their patients would be underserved minorities, compared to 28 percent of the low-income non-URM students and 17 percent of the higher income non-URM students. However, our multivariable results suggest that recruitment of both low-income groups (URM and non-URM) rather than high income regardless of ethnicity might be especially helpful in producing graduates who choose public service. URM/income status was not significantly related to serving special care or rural populations.
Andersen
Ronald M
RM
Wasserman Professor Emeritus, UCLA School of Public Health, Box 951772, 31-269 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, USA. randerse@ucla.edu
Carreon
Daisy C
DC
Davidson
Pamela L
PL
Nakazono
Terry T
TT
Shahedi
Shirin
S
Gutierrez
John J
JJ
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003729:Dental Care; D003815:Dentists / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000191:economics; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity; D005220:Fathers / Q000193:education; D005260:Female; D005378:Financial Support; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010560:Personnel Selection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011636:Public Health Dentistry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*