title: Dental care utilization among North Carolina rural older adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This analysis delineates the predisposing, need, and enabling factors that are associated with regular and recent dental care in a multiethnic sample of rural older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, comprehensive, oral-health survey conducted with a random, multiethnic (African American, American Indian, white) sample of 635 community-dwelling adults aged 60 years and older was completed in two rural southern counties. Logistic regression models assessed the simultaneous associations of dental care with predisposing, enabling, and need factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Almost no edentulous rural older adults received dental care; 27.1 percent of dentate rural older adults had received regular dental care, and 36.7 percent had received recent dental care. Predisposing (less than high-school education, dental anxiety), enabling (no regular place for dental care), and need factors (no filled teeth) reduced the odds of regular dental, while predisposing (dental anxiety), enabling (no regular place for dental care), and need factors (no filled teeth) reduced the odds of recent dental care. Having excellent, very good, or good self-rated oral health increased the odds of receiving regular and recent dental care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Regular and recent dental care are infrequent among rural older adults. Contrary to expectations, those not receiving dental care are those who most need care; this has been referred to as the Paradox of Dental Need. Community access to dental care and the ability of older adults to pay for dental care must be addressed by public-health policy to improve the health and quality of life of older adults in rural communities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1084, USA. tarcury@wfubmc.edu
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Arcury
authors.forename: Margaret R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Savoca
authors.forename: Andrea M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Haiying
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Gregg H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.forename: Ronny A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Leng
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.forename: Sara A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Quandt
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003752:Dental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009657:North Carolina; D012424:Rural Population