Sociodemographic Factors and Health-Risk Behaviors Associated with Recent Utilization of Dental Services Among South-Central Appalachian Adolescents

Background: Oral health is crucial for overall health. Oral health care need is the most prevalent unmet health care need among children and adolescents in the United States. Youth characteristics and socio-demographic factors are known to influence dental health service utilization. While there have been studies listing the factors contributing to the oral health disparities in the Appalachian region, very few studies have inspected the risk behaviours of the youth and their association with dental health care utilization. Methods: A structured questionnaire was administered to high school students in five counties of South-Central Appalachia. The survey included a question on a recent dental visit. The students provided information on socio-demographic characteristics and risk behaviours. Descriptive analysis was performed and the association between recent dental visit as the outcome variable and sociodemographic factors and health risk behaviours as independent variables were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The analysis was performed using SAS 9.4. Results:80.1% (N= 129) of the adolescents who had admitted to using tobacco products or electronic vapour products reported having visited the dentist in the past 12 months. 87.5% (N= 168) of the females and 80.3% (N=127) of the males reported having visited the dentist in the past 12 months and 81.43% (N=114) of the adolescents who received free or reduced lunch reported having visited the dentist in the past 12 months. Use of tobacco products was the only health risk behaviour significantly associated with dental visit in the past 12 months (p=0.04) after adjusting for covariates with OR=0.5 (95% C I:0.312 -1.01). Conclusion: The findings suggest that health risk behaviours such as using tobacco products may be associated with dental health care utilization and future research should focus on adolescents with health-risk behaviours with the goal of identifying interventions for at-risk populations. Keywords: Oral health, health disparities, youth, health risk behaviour