Abstract
The effect of contextual factors on dental care utilization was evaluated after adjustment for individual characteristics of Brazilian preschool children. This cross-sectional study assessed 639 preschool children aged 1 to 5 years from Santa Maria, a town in Rio Grande do Sul State, located in southern Brazil. Participants were randomly selected from children attending the National Children's Vaccination Day and 15 health centers were selected for this research. Visual examinations followed the ICDAS criteria. Parents answered a questionnaire about demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Contextual influences on children's dental care utilization were obtained from two community-related variables: presence of dentists and presence of workers' associations in the neighborhood. Unadjusted and adjusted multilevel logistic regression models were used to describe the association between outcome and predictor variables. A prevalence of 21.6% was found for regular use of dental services. The unadjusted assessment of the associations of dental health care utilization with individual and contextual factors included children's ages, family income, parents' schooling, mothers' participation in their children's school activities, dental caries, and presence of workers' associations in the neighborhood as the main outcome covariates. Individual variables remained associated with the outcome after adding contextual variables in the model. In conclusion, individual and contextual variables were associated with dental health care utilization by preschool children.
Highlights
IntroductionUnequal dental health care utilization by preschool children has been demonstrated in developing countries.[1,2,3,4] Previous studies have suggested that some individual factors, such as being older, having a higher income, having one’s own house, having access to preventive oral health information, having better educated parents, and being white children, could explain the reasons for seeking dental care services.[3,4,5,6,7] recent studies have demonstrated the importance of contextual factors for different oral health outcomes, including the use of dental services.[8,9,10,11,12]
Only one study was carried out with preschool children, showing that the use of dental care utilization was associated with individual factors and with contextual variables.[5]
We suggest that mothers who keep track of the school activities are more concerned with everything that involves their children, including oral health
Summary
Unequal dental health care utilization by preschool children has been demonstrated in developing countries.[1,2,3,4] Previous studies have suggested that some individual factors, such as being older, having a higher income, having one’s own house, having access to preventive oral health information, having better educated parents, and being white children, could explain the reasons for seeking dental care services.[3,4,5,6,7] recent studies have demonstrated the importance of contextual factors for different oral health outcomes, including the use of dental services.[8,9,10,11,12]. Contextual and individual determinants have been used together in multilevel analyses This allows adjusting individual characteristics by the contextual determinants of communities.[5,13,14] Presently, few studies use multilevel analysis to assess individual and contextual factors for dental care utilization.[5,10] only one study was carried out with preschool children, showing that the use of dental care utilization was associated with individual factors (demographic, dental health, habits, and socioeconomic factors) and with contextual variables (dental care model).[5] new studies are necessary to investigate other contexts in other regions. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of contextual factors on dental care utilization after adjustment for individual characteristics of Brazilian preschool children
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
