Racial/ethnic disparities in provision of dental procedures to children enrolled in Delta Dental insurance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. J Public Health Dent 2014;74(1):50-6
Date
09/14/2012Pubmed ID
22970893Pubmed Central ID
PMC4121860DOI
10.1111/j.1752-7325.2012.00366.xScopus ID
2-s2.0-84897657345 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 8 CitationsAbstract
OBJECTIVES: Most studies on the provision of dental procedures have focused on Medicaid enrollees known to have inadequate access to dental care. Little information on private insurance enrollees exists. This study documents the rates of preventive, restorative, endodontic, and surgical dental procedures provided to children enrolled in Delta Dental of Wisconsin (DDWI) in Milwaukee.
METHODS: We analyzed DDWI claims data for Milwaukee children aged 0-18 years between 2002 and 2008. We linked the ZIP codes of enrollees to the 2000 U.S. Census information to derive racial/ethnic estimates in the different ZIP codes. We estimated the rates of preventive, restorative, endodontic, and surgical procedures provided to children in different racial/ethnic groups based on the population estimates derived from the U.S. Census data. Descriptive and multivariable analysis was done using Poisson regression modeling on dental procedures per year.
RESULTS: In 7 years, a total of 266,380 enrollees were covered in 46 ZIP codes in the database. Approximately, 64 percent, 44 percent, and 49 percent of White, African American, and Hispanic children had at least one dental visit during the study period, respectively. The rates of preventive procedures increased up to the age of 9 years and decreased thereafter among children in all three racial groups included in the analysis. African American and Hispanic children received half as many preventive procedures as White children.
CONCLUSION: Our study shows that substantial racial disparities may exist in the types of dental procedures that were received by children.
Author List
Bhagavatula P, Xiang Q, Eichmiller F, Szabo A, Okunseri CAuthors
Pradeep Bhagavatula BDS, MPH, MS Assistant Professor in the Department of Dental Clinical Services department at Marquette UniversityChristopher Okunseri DDS,MS Associate Professor and Director in the Clinical Services department at Marquette University
Aniko Szabo PhD Professor in the Institute for Health and Equity department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
ChildChild, Preschool
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Insurance, Dental
Social Justice
Wisconsin