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Dental insurance and use of dental services
1Health Statistics Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa K1A 0T6. millway@statcan.ca
Objectives:
This article examines socioeconomic differences in insurance for dental services among Canadians aged 15 or older and factors associated with the use of dental services.
Data Source:
The data on dental insurance coverage and use of dental services are from the cross-sectional file of Statistics Canada's 1996/97 National Population Health Survey. The sample size of respondents aged 15 or older was 70,884.
Analytical Techniques:
Logistic regression analysis was used to model variables related to dental insurance coverage and to dental visits in the past year. A weighted bootstrap resampling procedure was used to derive variance estimates.
Main Results:
In 1996/97, 53% of the population aged 15 or older reported having dental insurance, and 59% said they had visited a dentist in the past year. But even when they had insurance, individuals with low incomes and low educational attainment had much lower odds of visiting a dentist than those with higher incomes and more education.