Abstract
This study aimed to determine the factors associated with the avoidance of dental preventive care in high school students and their parents in the framework of The Youth and Parents Risk Factor Behavior Survey in Slovakia, the ongoing cross-sectional school-based survey of students and their parents or legal representatives. The data were collected using two separate standardized questionnaires: (i) the questionnaire for students (n = 515) and (ii) the questionnaire for parents (n = 681). The study group included 57 high school students (54.4% males) who did not visit the dentist for preventive care in the previous year. The control group included 458 students (35.8% males) who visited a dentist for preventive care at least once in the previous year. A significantly higher number of males (54.4%), older adolescents, and young adults (21.8%; 20.0%) were not visiting dental preventive care regularly. Incomplete family (56.1%), stressful situations at home (17.5%), and feeling unwell were the factors contributing to the avoidance of dental preventive care. More than 34.5% of adolescents and young adults were not visiting either dental preventive care or pediatric preventive care (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 5.14; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.40, 10.99). Children of divorced mothers and mothers with household income lower than EUR 900 had significantly higher dental care avoidance in bivariate analysis. A significantly higher percentage of fathers from the exposed group were not visiting dental preventive care regularly (47.8%, p < 0.05). The results of the study can be used as an educational intervention step focusing on the parental influence on adolescent and young adults’ behavior and as a challenge for the improvement of dental preventive care in older adolescents and young adults.
Highlights
IntroductionOral diseases and inequalities constitute a significant public health problem in the prevalence of the major chronic diseases of the 21st century
After exclusion of missing data, the multiple logistic regression model included 479 adolescents, 325 mothers, and 265 fathers. This cross-sectional study identified several sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors associated with non-attendance at dental preventive care in the sample of adolescents and young adults and confirmed the assumptions hypothesized at the beginning of the study
Our study revealed several sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors which have a significant impact on the avoidance of dental preventive care in adolescents and young adults
Summary
Oral diseases and inequalities constitute a significant public health problem in the prevalence of the major chronic diseases of the 21st century. Oral health is an integral part of general health and should not be considered in isolation, as many risk factors of poor oral health [1] are the risk factors for obesity, heart disease, stroke, cancer, etc. Dental preventive care aims at reducing tooth decay incidence [3,4] and searching for dental disorders. The education of parents plays one of the key roles in prevention [5]
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