Abstract
To evaluate the oral health, the use of dental services and associated factors among individuals aged 60 years, or more, living in the rural area. This is a population-based, cross-sectional study carried out in the rural area of a medium-sized municipality in the extreme south of Brazil. The outcome was to have used dental services in the 12 months before the date of the interview. The analysis included a description of the sample, prevalence of the use of dental services for each category of independent variables and multivariate analysis through Poisson Regression. In total, 1,030 older adults were interviewed, of which 49.9% were totally edentulous patients, and 13.9% had dental visits in the last year. The probability of visits was higher in females, with a partner, higher schooling, of the highest economic levels and that reported some oral health problem. On the other hand, elderly who reported being former smokers or were current smokers had fewer visits. Health planning should be reorganized to prioritize population groups with more significant difficulties in the use of dental services.
Highlights
Brazilian population aging requires greater health care, the existing services did not adequately meet the needs of seniors
With the intention of increasing information on the pattern of dental visits in rural areas, this study aimed to describe oral health, the use of dental services and associated factors among individuals aged 60 years or more residing in the rural area, located in a municipality in the extreme south of Brazil
In order to estimate the prevalence of dental services utilization in the last year, a prevalence of 20%, an error of 2 p.p. and 95% confidence level was used in the calculation of sample size, with a 10% increase for losses and refusals, resulting in 679 individuals
Summary
Brazilian population aging requires greater health care, the existing services did not adequately meet the needs of seniors. Comparing the last two national epidemiological surveys, namely, the National Oral Health Surveys conducted in 2003 and 2010 (SBBrasil), even with the significant improvement of the DMFT (decayed, missing and filled teeth) rate in the young population, among the elderly from 65 to 74 years of age, this rate practically remained unchanged, reaching 27.5 teeth in 2010, whereas in 2003, the average was 27.8 teeth, mostly corresponding to “extracted” or “missing”[13,14] This dental loss of older adults is still popularly seen as part of the aging process, not as a shortcoming of public policies, which are not geared toward the adult population so that it can reach senility with its natural teeth[15]
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