IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i8p2672-d345128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dental Care for Asylum-Seekers in Germany: A Retrospective Hospital-Based Study

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Freiberg

    (Interdisciplinary Center for Health Sciences, Institute for Medical Epidemiology, Biometrics and Informatics (IMEBI), Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Straße 8, 06112 Halle (Saale), Germany)

  • Andreas Wienke

    (Interdisciplinary Center for Health Sciences, Institute for Medical Epidemiology, Biometrics and Informatics (IMEBI), Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Straße 8, 06112 Halle (Saale), Germany)

  • Lena Bauer

    (Interdisciplinary Center for Health Sciences, Institute for Medical Epidemiology, Biometrics and Informatics (IMEBI), Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Straße 8, 06112 Halle (Saale), Germany)

  • Andreas Niedermaier

    (Interdisciplinary Center for Health Sciences, Institute for Medical Epidemiology, Biometrics and Informatics (IMEBI), Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Straße 8, 06112 Halle (Saale), Germany)

  • Amand Führer

    (Interdisciplinary Center for Health Sciences, Institute for Medical Epidemiology, Biometrics and Informatics (IMEBI), Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Straße 8, 06112 Halle (Saale), Germany)

Abstract

Background: The growing immigration to Germany led to more patients whose medical needs are divergent from those of the domestic population. In the field of dental health care there is a debate about how well the German health system is able to meet the resulting challenges. Data on asylum-seekers’ dental health is scarce. This work is intended to reduce this data gap. Methods: We conducted this retrospective observational study in Halle (Saale), Germany. We included all persons who were registered with the social welfare office (SWO) in 2015 and received dental treatments. From the medical records, we derived information such as complaints, diagnoses, and treatments. Results: Out of 4107 asylum-seekers, the SWO received a bill for 568 people. On average, there were 1.44 treatment cases (95%-CI: 1.34–1.55) and 2.53 contacts with the dentist per patient (95%-CI: 2.33–2.74). Among those, the majority went to the dentist because of localized (43.2%, 95%-CI: 38.7–47.7) and non-localized pain (32.0%, 95%-CI: 27.8–36.2). The most widespread diagnosis was caries ( n = 469, 98.7%, 95%-CI: 97.7–99.7). Conclusion: The utilization of dental care is lower among asylum-seekers than among regularly insured patients. We assume that the low prevalence rates in our data indicate existing access barriers to the German health care system.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Freiberg & Andreas Wienke & Lena Bauer & Andreas Niedermaier & Amand Führer, 2020. "Dental Care for Asylum-Seekers in Germany: A Retrospective Hospital-Based Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-13, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:8:p:2672-:d:345128
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2672/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2672/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Natalia Mikhailichenko & Kimitoshi Yagami & Jeng-Yuan Chiou & Jing-Yang Huang & Yu-Hsun Wang & James Cheng-Chung Wei & Te-Jen Lai, 2019. "Exposure to Dental Filling Materials and the Risk of Dementia: A Population-Based Nested Case Control Study in Taiwan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-11, September.
    2. Mary Ellen Macdonald & Mark T. Keboa & Nazik M. Nurelhuda & Herenia P. Lawrence & Franco Carnevale & Mary McNally & Sonica Singhal & Khady Ka & Belinda Nicolau, 2019. "The Oral Health of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Canada: A Mixed Methods Study Protocol," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-12, February.
    3. Green, M., 2017. "Language barriers and health of syrian refugees in Germany," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107(4), pages 486-486.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefano Cianetti & Chiara Valenti & Massimiliano Orso & Giuseppe Lomurno & Michele Nardone & Anna Palma Lomurno & Stefano Pagano & Guido Lombardo, 2021. "Systematic Review of the Literature on Dental Caries and Periodontal Disease in Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Individuals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-22, November.
    2. Dorina Lauritano & Giulia Moreo & Francesco Carinci & Vincenzo Campanella & Fedora Della Vella & Massimo Petruzzi, 2021. "Oral Health Status among Migrants from Middle- and Low-Income Countries to Europe: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-37, November.
    3. Sneha Bhusari & Chiamaka Ilechukwu & Abdelrahman Elwishahy & Olaf Horstick & Volker Winkler & Khatia Antia, 2020. "Dental Caries among Refugees in Europe: A Systematic Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-11, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cheng, Zhiming & Wang, Ben Zhe & Jiang, Zhou & Taksa, Lucy & Tani, Massimiliano, 2020. "English Skills and Early Labour Market Integration: Evidence from Humanitarian Migrants in Australia," GLO Discussion Paper Series 672, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Nazik M. Nurelhuda & Mark T. Keboa & Herenia P. Lawrence & Belinda Nicolau & Mary Ellen Macdonald, 2021. "Advancing Our Understanding of Dental Care Pathways of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Canada: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-11, August.
    3. Cheng, Zhiming & Wang, Ben Zhe & Jiang, Zhou & Taksa, Lucy & Tani, Massimiliano, 2020. "English Skills and Early Labour Market Integration of Humanitarian Migrants," IZA Discussion Papers 13728, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Digo Chakraverty & Annika Baumeister & Angela Aldin & Tina Jakob & Ümran Sema Seven & Christiane Woopen & Nicole Skoetz & Elke Kalbe, 2020. "Gender-Specific Aspects of Health Literacy: Perceptions of Interactions with Migrants among Health Care Providers in Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-20, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:8:p:2672-:d:345128. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.