The association between dental insurance coverage, socio-economic status and use of dental care in adolescents

Several items affect the use of dental services. The objective of this study was to assess the association between socio-economic status (SES) and dental insurance coverage with the use of dental services amongst Iranian adolescents aged 13-15 years old. In this cross sectional study, we used a researcher-made questionnaire to assess the association between socio-economic status (SES) and dental insurance coverage with the use of dental services in 423 Iranian adolescents aged 13-15 years old. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data, generate descriptive statistics, and perform multiple logistic regressions. Use of dental services was statistically significant amongst the students with dental insurance and parents with higher income (P<0.001), which was independent of the other socio-economic factors (parent’s age, education and marital status). The results showed that one of the important policies to reduce inequality in dental care is to improve dental insurance coverage.