Allen, F;
Guarnizo-Herreño, CC;
Fan, SY;
Tsakos, G;
(2023)
Does subsidizing the cost of care impact on dental attendance patterns among older adults?
Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology
10.1111/cdoe.12934.
(In press).
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To assess whether eligibility for an age-related universal (pioneer generation [PG]) subsidy incentivises dental attendance by older Singaporeans. METHODS: Data were collected between 2018 and 2021 from in-person interviews of Singaporean adults aged 60–90 years using a questionnaire and a clinical examination. The questionnaire included details of age, gender, ethnicity, education, residential status, socio-economic status, marital status, eligibility for subsidy (community health assistance/CHAS, PG or both) and frequency of dental attendance. The clinical examination recorded number of teeth (categorized as edentulous, 1–9 teeth;10–19 teeth; ≥20 teeth). To estimate the effect of the PG subsidy on dental attendance pattern, a regression discontinuity (RD) analysis was applied using age as the assignment variable. RESULTS: A total of 1172 participants aged 60–90 years (64.2% female) were recruited, with 498 (43%) being eligible for the PG subsidy. For those eligible for PG subsidy, there was a higher proportion of regular attenders than irregular attenders (53.6% vs. 46.4%). In age adjusted RD analysis, those eligible for the PG subsidy were 1.6 (95% CI: 1.0, 2.7) times more likely to report regular attendance than their PG non-eligible counterparts. The association remained strong (OR 2.1; 95% CI: 1.1–3.7) even after further controlling for demographics, socioeconomic factors, number of teeth and eligibility for the CHAS subsidy. CONCLUSIONS: Being eligible for the PG subsidy substantially increased the odds of regular dental attendance.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Does subsidizing the cost of care impact on dental attendance patterns among older adults? |
| Location: | Denmark |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/cdoe.12934 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/cdoe.12934 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 The Authors. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. |
| Keywords: | Dental care for elderly, government subsidies, health behaviours, health services research, health survey |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10184755 |
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