Living environment associated with oral health utilization among individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Background: Oral disease disproportionately impacts individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). Frequent dental prophylaxis visits may help prevent poor oral health outcomes. Utilization of prophylaxis visits by the I/DD population is unclear. This study investigates the relationship between living environments on utilization of dental prophylaxis. Methods: This retrospective analysis used data collected from state-sponsored dental clinics serving the I/DD population. Patients treated in this system have dental benefits that reimburse four dental prophylaxis visits annually. Data from axiUm electronic health records of dentate adults (³20 years) with a dental exam date in a given year were used to fit multivariate logistic regression models. The dependent variable, four or more prophylaxis visits/yr or less than four prophylaxis visits/yr, was predicted by age, gender, living environment, cooperation category, periodontitis and presence of untreated caries. Results: The population [n=4221, 42.32% female, mean (SD) age of 47.52 (13.55)] reside in: a state-supported community (68.66%), family (14.57%), state facility (10.84%), independently (2.11%), nursing home (1.29%) or other (2.84%). Periodontitis prevalence was 80.23% and untreated caries was 35.47%. Oral health outcomes and living environment interaction terms were not statistically significant. Compared to those living in a state facility, individuals living independently were 9.36 (CI: 5.17-16.94) times more likely to not have had four annual prophylaxis visits. Conclusion: Factors related to living environment may influence frequency of prophylaxis. More work is needed to investigate this relationship in the I/DD population.