Factors Affecting Demand and Utilization of Dental Services: Evidence from a Developing Country

To achieve evidence-based policymaking to improve access to dental services and reduce inequality in the utilization of these services, the identification of effective factors on the use of dental services is essential.

Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the most important socioeconomic factors affecting the demand and utilization of dental services among households in Khorramabad, Iran.

This cross-sectional study was performed among 500 households in Khorramabad city in 2017. The participants were selected using a randomized stratified sampling method. Logistic regression was used to determine the most important factors affecting the utilization of dental services and linear regression to examine income elasticity. To measure inequality among income groups, the concentration index was employed. Data analysis was performed using STATA-14 software and the inequality measurement was carried out using DASP-2.3 in STATA software.

The mean number of visits by the respondents was 2.78 ± 1.8. Income elasticity and concentration index for these services were estimated to be 0.31 and 0.207, respectively. Increasing household income, advancing age, higher education level of the head of the household, and having complementary insurance coverage (OR = 1.72) had positive relationships with the increased utilization of dental services. Also, a female head of the household (OR = 0.39) and increased household size (OR = 0.9) led to a reduction in the utilization of these services.

Inequality is observed in the use of dental services between different socioeconomic groups. Therefore, health policymakers should implement interventions such as dental health insurance to reduce this inequality in such a way that inequalities between socioeconomic groups are reduced.