Access To Oral Health Care Of 828 Residents And The Analysis Of Its Influence Factors In Dalian

[Objective] Through the investigation of access to oral health care among residents in Dalian, analyze disparities in different groups of the population and explore its influence factors. Focus the analysis on oral health literacy as a key impact factor of access to oral health care. To provide some basic date for improving access to oral health care and oral health literacy in achieving oral health.[Methods] 1. Literature research: Use the method of document retrieval to search literatures on “oral health care”, “access” and “oral health literacy”, and then conclude and analysis the literatures. 2. Questionnaire design and test: Refer to several national and international surveys, the questionnaire include four parts: general characteristics, access to oral health care, oral health literacy and oral health impact profile(OHIP). The questionnaire of oral health literacy have three dimensions: attitude of oral health care, oral health knowledge, and oral health behavior and skill. Use Cronbach Alpha and Q cluster analysis to test the reliability and validity of the oral health literacy questionnaire, all the values are acceptable. Screen the questions by facility value and discriminate analysis, then finalize the design of questionnaire. 3. Questionnaire survey: 10 survey spots have been selected according to the principle of the balance and variety of population characteristics in the city of Dalian, using self-designed questionnaire and the method of typical investigation, about 80-90 residents(older than 18 years old) have been asked in each spot. 828 effective questionnaires have been collected, the valid response rate is 96.3%. The result of Myer’s index shows a good quality of sampling. 4. Data analysis: Use Epidata software for data entry, and analyze the data by SPSS. Descriptive analysis, Chi-square test, Rank sun test and Binary logistic regression analysis were used in analyzing the impact factors of access to oral health care and the influence by oral health literacy.[Results] 1. Access to oral health care: The proportion of last dental visit within 1 year is only 29.6%, and the rate of dental visit last year among people who suffered by oral diseases is 50%, the access to oral health care is poor. Access to oral health preventive care is also on a low level, reasons for “dental check-up” and “dental cleaning” only take up 24.8%. 2. Influence factors of access to oral health care:(1) Univariate analysis shows that the impact factors include gender, age, marital status, educational level, domicile place, occupation, income, oral health literacy and oral health need. And multivariate analysis shows that gender, occupation and oral health literacy have an effect on the access to oral health care. Male, low income groups, unemployed population and low oral health literacy groups have less access to oral health care.(2)Oral health literacy plays a significant role in impacting access to oral health care, the proportion of dental visit within 1 year among people who possess oral health literacy(52.2%) is significantly higher than the other group(33.7%), and the dental visiting rate and times of dental visit among people who suffered by oral diseases last year is also higher in the population who have better oral health literacy. High oral health literacy group has higher visiting rate for “dental check-up” and “dental cleaning”(high oral health literacy group is 40.8%, and the low is 21.3%).[Conclusion] It shows poor access to oral health care of the subjects, and male, unemployed people or low income group have poorer access. Oral health literacy is an important influence factor of access to oral health care, high oral health literacy brings better access to oral health care, and high utilization of oral health preventive care. Therefore, we should pay attention to the residents with poorer access to oral health care on the basis of increasing access to oral health care for the general, and promot oral health literacy, sequentially improve the access to oral health care, oral health literacy and oral health status for residents.