Unmet Dental Care Needs Among Older Koreans

To examine predisposing characteristics, enabling resources, need-related factors, and health behaviour or service-use indicators associated with unmet dental care needs among Korean adults aged ≥ 65 years, using Andersen's Behavioural Model of Health Services Use as an organizing framework.

Previous Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES)-based studies have identified socioeconomic, geographic, and oral health-related correlates of unmet dental care needs among older adults. However, the joint contributions of these factors have received less attention within an explicitly theory-based framework of healthcare access.

This cross-sectional study analysed data from 1737 adults aged ≥ 65 years who participated in the 2023 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Unmet dental care needs were defined as reporting a need for dental care that was not received in the previous year. Weighted descriptive estimates, Rao-Scott adjusted tests, and complex-sample multivariable logistic regression were used.

The weighted prevalence of unmet dental care needs was 23.2% (95% CI: 21.0-25.4). Rural residence (aOR = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.06-1.95), no oral examination in the past year (aOR = 2.70, 95% CI: 1.99-3.66), living alone (aOR = 1.54, 95% CI: 1.09-2.17), chewing difficulty (aOR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.58-3.05), very poor self-rated oral health (aOR = 4.09 vs. very good, 95% CI: 1.47-8.81), and Medical Aid coverage (aOR = 2.80 vs. community-based insurance, 95% CI: 1.40-5.61) were associated with higher odds of unmet dental care needs.

Unmet dental care needs remain common among Korean older adults and are associated with enabling resources, oral health needs, and preventive service use. Targeted rural outreach, care navigation for socially vulnerable older adults, and stronger linkage between preventive examinations and subsequent dental care may help address these multidimensional access barriers.