The Exploration of Oral Health Behaviors and Dental Care Utilization in Taiwan

[[abstract]]Background & Purposes: Oral diseases could affect breath, hinder the development of interpersonal relationship, reduce the ability to chew, cause gastrointestinal disease, and even affect the quality of life. In order to maintain oral functions, the best way is to have correct oral health habit. There exists a problem in unfair distribution of medical resources over a long time in Taiwan, which results in limited healthcare accessibility and less medical resources for rural residents. Hence, rural residents are less likely to get comprehensive medical care. The study was aimed to understand and explore associations among social-demographic characteristics, oral health behaviors, and dental care utilizations. Methods: This study used the data from the National Health Interview Survey Original Database provided in 2001 by the Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health, Executive Yuan and National Health Research Institutes. Only people who aged from 18 to 64 were enrolled. Dental care utilization of subjects who agreed to be registered in National Health Insurance Database from 2000 to 2002 were then to be merged. All statistical analyses were conducted by SPSS 12.0 for windows. Results: Most social-demographic characteristics, except for sex, show significant differences between the urban and rural residents. The proportions of “tooth brushing at least twice a day” and “use dental floss” in the urban residents are higher than the rural residents. Yet the rural residents use dental gargling more frequently. The urban residents who regularly go to cleaning teeth are 17.7%, and the rural residents are 11.7%. Regardless of the urban and the rural residents, the reasons for dental visits are more likely to be treatment services than prevention services. The proportion of dental visits in three years, the frequencies of dental visits, and the fees of dental visits in the urban residents are all higher than the rural residents. By the multiple regression and logistic regression, we find that the associated factors of the dental care utilization are sex, age, educational level, marital status, income, frequencies of tooth brushing, and dental floss use. Conclusions & Suggestions: The urban residents have better oral health behaviors and more dental care utilizations. The rural residents may have less medical resources and limited healthcare accessibility that could affect their care utilization. We suggest increasing dental resources and enhancing healthcare accessibility in rural area, such that rural residents could have comprehensive dental care