Abstract
Aim: To determine how one dental education session and referral of study participants aged 8-11 years would affect utilization of oral-health care services. Methods: This descriptive prospective study recruited 1,406 pupils aged 8-11 years from randomly selected primary schools in Enugu metropolis. All pupils received one oral-health education and referral letters for treatment. Data were collected on the pupils’ socio-demographic profile, family structure, and history of oral-health care utilization in the 12 months preceding the study and within 12 months of receipt of referral letter. The effect of these factors as predictors of past and recent dental service utilization was determined using logistic regression. Results: Only 4.3% of the study participants had ever used oral-health services in the 12 months prior to the study. Within 12 months of issuing the referral letters, 9.0% of pupils used the oral-health services. Children from middle (AOR: 0.46; CI: 0.29-0.73; p=0.001) and low socioeconomic strata (AOR: 0.21; CI: 0.11-0.39; p<0.001) and those living with relatives/guardians (AOR: 0.08, CI: 0.01-0.56; p=0.01) were still less likely to have utilized oral-health services. Conclusions: Referral of children for oral-health care increased the number of children who utilized oral health care services.
Highlights
Regular preventive dental attendance is a contributor to the oral-health status of people of all ages[1]
The goal of our study was to explore how delivering referrals affected the utilization of oral health services by pupils attending schools in Enugu metropolis, Enugu State, Nigeria
Pupils with low and middle socioeconomic status and those who lived with relatives/ guardians were less likely to have ever used a dental service than the pupils from high socioeconomic status or those living with parents
Summary
Regular preventive dental attendance is a contributor to the oral-health status of people of all ages[1]. Many factors affect utilization of oral-health care services: socioeconomic status[2,3], attitude towards dental care[4], family structure[5], proximity to oral-healthcare centers[6], being an immigrant[7], and ability to take time out for dental visits[8]. These factors interplay, resulting in a synergistic effect that may worsen the effect of independent factors on the risk of poor utilization of oral-healthcare services. Efforts at promoting utilization of dental service by children in Nigeria
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