[Utilisation Of Dental And Medical Care Among Children And Adolescents With And Without Special Support Needs]

Children and adolescents with special support needs, i. e. with disabilities, special educational needs and impairments, are a heterogeneous group with different health situations and needs. This article examines to what extent these health-related needs are reflected in the self-reported utilisation of dental and medical care, also in comparison to children and adolescents without special support needs.The database for this work is the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS Wave 2, 2014-2017). The following utilisation indicators were used for the analyses: dental check-up, orthodontic treatment, dental services overall, pediatrics, internal medicine, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, orthopedics, as well as psychiatric, psychotherapeutic and psychological services. Prevalences, univariable and multivariable prevalence ratios were calculated, which were controlled for sex, age and socioeconomic status of the family, as well as p-values from Poisson regressions.The analyses were based on data of 779 children and adolescents with and 9,943 children and adolescents without special support needs. Children and adolescents with special support needs showed lower utilisation of dental services compared to children and adolescents without special support needs (e. g. dental check-ups: 72.8% and 79.4%, respectively; univariable p=0.011), although the differences did not persist in the multivariable model (p>0.05). In contrast, children and adolescents with special support needs were significantly more likely to receive specialist somatic (e. g. ophthalmology: 43,6% and 32.1%, respectively), psychiatric (18.7% and 4.2%, respectively) and psychological care (13.0% and 2.5%, respectively) compared to children and adolescents without special support needs (p<0.001).Among children and adolescents with special support needs, the utilisation of medical care was significantly higher than among children and adolescents without special support needs, while there were hardly any differences in the utilisation of dental services. In order to improve the oral health of children and adolescents with special support needs, target group-specific health care and support services in close interdisciplinary co-operation seem to be necessary.