title: Barriers to oral health across selected European countries and the USA.
abstract: In this review we consider oral-health access among older adults within and between the USA and various European countries with regard to possible primary financial and modifiable secondary non-financial factors. For older adults, the likelihood of using dental services has been associated, in the health literature, with a multiplicity of factors. These factors are traditionally classified into predisposing, enabling and need categories, and can be further classified into modifiable and non-modifiable subcategories. This raises the question of which single factor or group of factors has the most influence in keeping older adults from seeking care, and how these influences might differ between the USA and various other (European) countries. As it turns out, there is variation in the magnitude of effects across certain measurable potential barriers, but generally it takes a combination of characteristics associated with non-use to have a substantial impact.
authors.affiliation: Dental Public Health, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Manski
authors.affiliation: Dental Public Health, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moeller
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003729:Dental Care / Q000191:economics; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D007347:Insurance, Dental; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009909:Oral Health / Q000193:education; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States
keywords: Dental insurance coverage; Europe; USA; elderly populations; inequalities