IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i24p13337-d705425.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Associations of Medical Visits with Dentist Visits: A Register-Linkage Study of a Working-Age Population in Finland

Author

Listed:
  • Mikko Nurminen

    (Research Unit, The Social Insurance Institution of Finland, P.O. Box 450, 00056 Helsinki, Finland)

  • Jenni Blomgren

    (Research Unit, The Social Insurance Institution of Finland, P.O. Box 450, 00056 Helsinki, Finland)

Abstract

Studies have usually addressed the utilization of either medical or dental services, and less is known about how medical and dentist visits are associated. As oral health is linked to systemic health, knowledge on care coordination between dental and medical services is important to gain understanding of the overall functioning of health care. Register data on 25–64-year-old residents of the city of Oulu, Finland, were used for the years 2017–2018 (N = 91,060). Logit models were estimated to analyze the probability of dentist visits, according to the number of medical visits in total and by three separate health care sectors. The majority, 61%, had visited both a medical professional and a dentist. All sectors combined, as few as one to two visits increased the odds of dentist visits (OR: 1.43, CI: 1.33, 1.53). When separated by medical professionals’ health care sectors, for one to two visits, the strongest association was found with public (OR: 1.17, CI: 1.12, 1.22) and private sector (OR: 1.35, CI: 1.30, 1.41). For occupational health service visits, the odds increased only after six or more visits. The results support the idea of integrated medical and dental care. However, the result may also arise from individual health behavior where health-conscious persons seek both medical and dental care independently.

Suggested Citation

  • Mikko Nurminen & Jenni Blomgren, 2021. "Associations of Medical Visits with Dentist Visits: A Register-Linkage Study of a Working-Age Population in Finland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-12, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13337-:d:705425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13337/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13337/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lien Nguyen & Unto Häkkinen, 2006. "Choices and utilization in dental care," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 7(2), pages 99-106, June.
    2. Martin, S.A. & Simon, L., 2017. "Oral health and medicine integration: Overcoming historical artifact to relieve suffering," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107, pages 30-31.
    3. Strauss, S.M. & Alfano, M.C. & Shelley, D. & Fulmer, T., 2012. "Identifying unaddressed systemic health conditions at dental visits: Patients who visited dental practices but not general health care providers in 2008," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(2), pages 253-255.
    4. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2017.303683_0 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Mikko Nurminen & Jenni Blomgren & Hennamari Mikkola, 2021. "Socioeconomic differences in utilization of public and private dental care in Finland: Register-based evidence on a population aged 25 and over," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(8), pages 1-16, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Epstein, D.S. & Barton, C. & Mazza, D. & Woode, M.E. & Mortimer, D., 2020. "Patient chosen gap payments in primary care: Predictions of patient acceptability, uptake and willingness to pay from a discrete choice experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    2. Sean Mahoney & Adam Bradley & Logan Pitts & Stephanie Waletzko & Sheria G. Robinson-Lane & Timothy Fairchild & Donna J. Terbizan & Ryan McGrath, 2020. "Health Insurance Is Associated with Decreased Odds for Undiagnosed Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes in American Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-15, June.
    3. Anna Durbin & Bennett T. Amaechi & Stephen Abrams & Andreas Mandelis & Sara Werb & Benjamin Roebuck & Janet Durbin & Ri Wang & Maryam Daneshvarfard & Konesh Sivagurunathan & Laurent Bozec, 2022. "Protocol for a Case Control Study to Evaluate Oral Health as a Biomarker of Child Exposure to Adverse Psychosocial Experiences," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Lien Nguyen & Unto Häkkinen & Matti Knuuttila & Marjo‐Riitta Järvelin, 2008. "Should we brush twice a day? Determinants of dental health among young adults in Finland," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(2), pages 267-286, February.

    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:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13337-:d:705425. 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.