Dental welfare profiles in a group of disabled Norwegian adults

In a group of 496 non-institutionalized disabled Norwegian adults the possibility of identifying groups with particular dental welfare profiles which could be ascribed to a set of resource profiles was studied. Eight independent resource variables and seven dependent dental welfare variables were included in the model using canonical correlation analysis. Three main dental welfare profiles were identified: The most important profile was dominated by number of own teeth and differences were mainly ascribed to age, income, marital status and education. The second profile comprised a combination of absence of payment arrangement, chewing problems and barriers for dental care and differences were ascribed to sex, hospital experience, and organized assistance. The third profile discriminating between the disabled individuals was problems with performing dental hygiene associated with irregular use of dental services and barriers for dental care and differences were related to sex, marital status, degree of dependency, and organized assistance. For all profiles, individual characteristics were more important than contextual resources.