Examining the association of social needs with dental utilization

The objective of this study was to: 1) describe the prevalence of social needs in an integrated health system in Oregon and Southwest Washington and 2) examine whether and how the presence of social needs is associated with dental care utilization.

In this observational study, we identified 80,273 patients that met the following inclusion criteria: 1) completed a social needs screening between 1/1/2023 and 10/1/2024 (index date), 2) age 18+ as of index date, 3) 12+ months of dental and medical insurance coverage before and after index date and 4) not on research exclusion list. Four social needs were assessed: financial strain, food insecurity, housing instability and transportation needs. Two logistic regression models analyzed the association of social needs with dental care utilization: 1) each social need variable analyzed as a dichotomous measure: yes vs. no (ref. group) and 2) social needs analyzed as a count variable: 1, 2, 3 or more vs. 0 needs (ref. group).

Approximately 17.8% of patients reported ≥1 social need at index date. We found that those with financial strain, food insecurity and transportation needs had lower odds of having any dental visits in the 12 months after social needs assessment. Having 1 or more social needs was associated with lower odds of having any dental visit.

Further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to target social needs and whether resolution of these needs is associated with increases in dental utilization.