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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Alberto J. Caban-Martinez, MPH¹, David Lee, PhD¹, Lora E. Fleming, MD, PhD¹, William G. LeBlanc, PhD¹, Katherine Chung-Bridges, MD, MPH², Sharon L. Christ, MS³, Kristopher L. Arheart, EdD¹, Terry Pitman, BA¹, and Katherine E. McCollister, PhD¹. (1) Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine - NIOSH Research Group, 1801 NW 9th Avenue, Rm 208-B, Highland Professional Building, Miami, FL 33136, 305-243-7565, acaban@med.miami.edu, (2) Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, P.O. Box 016700 (R-700), Miami, FL 33101, (3) Odum Institute for Research in Social Science & Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#3355, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Introduction: The impact of poor oral health can have a profound effect on quality of life. The Oral Health Care Objectives of Healthy People 2010 indicate a need to increase the proportion of adults who use the oral health care system each year. Given the dependence of the US population on employer-provided medical and dental care, it is important to evaluate the access to dental care and the extent of unmet dental needs of US workers.

Methods: The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is an annual, continuous, multipurpose, and multistage area probability cross-sectional survey of the US civilian non-institutionalized population. Gender and race-specific analyses by occupation were conducted on approximately 135,000 adults, age 18 years and older, that participated in the 1997-2003 NHIS.

Results: Among the approximate 135,000 worker participants (representing 68,293,862 and 58,676,455 US workers, respectively) dental care access is sub-optimal and unmet dental needs are significant for several US worker groups. The occupations in which the majority of workers had not seen a dentist in the past year included: male Forestry and fishing occupations (14.1%) and female Construction and extractive trade workers (26.8%).

Conclusion: Contemporary research has indicated that many Americans do not receive essential preventive dental services and treatment, which may result in socioeconomic disparities in oral health status. Findings from the present study could be utilized to target worksite programs that can promote and deliver oral health screenings crucial for the prevention of oral disease for US workers and their families.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe contemporary utilization of oral health care services by US Workers;
• List the occupational groups reporting the least amount of contact with oral health care services.
• Evaluate which gender-based occupations report the largest amount of unmet dental care needs.
• Discuss the benefits of using the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data to evaluate US worker healthcare access

Keywords: Access and Services, Workforce

Related Web page: www.rsmas.miami.edu/groups/niehs/niosh/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered