Educational Attainment and Self-Rated Oral Health among American Older Adults: Hispanics' Diminished Returns.

Shervin Assari,Mohsen Bazargan

doi:10.3390/dj7040097

Abstract

Background: Minorities’ diminished returns (MDRs) refer to systemically weaker effects of socioeconomic status (SES), particularly educational attainment, on the health of non-Whites compared to Whites. Aim: Using a nationally representative sample, we aimed to investigate ethnic differences in the effect of SES (educational attainment) on the self-rated oral health of Hispanic older adults in the US. Methods: This study analyzed the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging (UM-NPHA) 2017 data, which included 2131 older adults who were 50 to 80 years old (202 Hispanics and 1929 non-Hispanics). Ethnicity, race, educational attainment (SES), age, gender, employment, retirement, and self-rated oral health (single item) were measured. Logistic regressions were applied for data analysis. Results: High educational attainment was associated with lower odds of poor oral health in the pooled sample, net of all covariates. The effect of educational attainment on poor self-rated oral health was found to be weaker for Hispanics than for non-Hispanics. Conclusion: We observed MDRs of educational attainment (SES) on oral health for Hispanic older adults. In other words, compared to non-Hispanics, Hispanics gain less oral health from their educational attainment (SES).

Highlights

Minorities’ diminished returns (MDRs) refer to systemically weaker effects of socioeconomic status (SES), educational attainment, on the health of non-Whites compared to Whites
We observed that the protective effects of high educational attainment against poor self-rated oral health are greater in non-Hispanic older adults than in Hispanic older adults
Our first finding is in line with the literature, which has frequently shown a protective effect of SES against poor oral health [1,10,11,12]

Summary

Introduction

Minorities’ diminished returns (MDRs) refer to systemically weaker effects of socioeconomic status (SES), educational attainment, on the health of non-Whites compared to Whites. Aim: Using a nationally representative sample, we aimed to investigate ethnic differences in the effect of SES (educational attainment) on the self-rated oral health of Hispanic older adults in the US. Race, educational attainment (SES), age, gender, employment, retirement, and self-rated oral health (single item) were measured. The effect of educational attainment on poor self-rated oral health was found to be weaker for Hispanics than for non-Hispanics. At least some of these ethnic differences in oral health can be attributed to low socioeconomic status (SES), which translates to reduced access to dental care [3]. Socioeconomic status, high educational attainment, is generally protective against poor oral health and promotes access to dental services [1,2,3].

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Discussion

Conclusion