Income Inequality in Dental Visits Among Chinese Children: Analysis of Longitudinal Data

This study aimed to explore whether income inequality exists in dental visits among children when children/parents were informed they had caries.

This study used data from a prior longitudinal study carried out in Liaoning Province, China, involving 772 children under the age of five from local kindergartens. Children were clinically assessed for dental caries at baseline, data on dental visits were collected a year later. Logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between dental caries and household income at baseline and dental visits at follow-up, a year later.

In the logistic regression analysis accounting for age and sex, the results showed that household income and dental caries had significant association with dental visits among Chinese children. Lower household income was negatively associated with dental visits, with those at the lowest income level having lower odds ratio (OR) of 0.27 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.16, 0.47), and the second lowest income level, with OR of 0.39 (95% CI: 0.22, 0.71) compared to highest-income group. There was a statistically significant association between dental caries at baseline and dental visits in the following year (OR: 1.08, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.15).

There were income inequalities in dental visits among children in China, even when they were diagnosed with dental caries. Socioeconomic inequality appears to be a major barrier to dental visits among Chinese children with dental needs.