TY - JOUR
T1 - Income-related inequalities in access to dental care services in Japan
AU - Nishide, Akemi
AU - Fujita, Misuzu
AU - Sato, Yasunori
AU - Nagashima, Kengo
AU - Takahashi, Sho
AU - Hata, Akira
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS KAKENHI Grant (Number 26460826)) and the Chiba Foundation for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention. We greatly appreciate the invaluable help and support from staff of Chiba City Hall, Masashi Nagashima, Shinji Tada, Yuki Nakamoto, Toshitaka Hosono, and Shinsuke Mizuma, who provided all data analyzed in this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2017/5/12
Y1 - 2017/5/12
N2 - Background: This study aimed to evaluate whether income-related inequalities in access to dental care services exist in Japan. Methods: The subjects included beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance (NHI) in Chiba City, Japan, who had been enrolled from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015. The presence or absence of dental visits and number of days spent on dental care services during the year were calculated using insurance claims submitted. Equivalent household income was calculated using individual income data from 1 January to 31 December 2013, declared for taxation. Results: Of the 216,211 enrolled subjects, 50.3% had dental care during the year. Among those with dental visits, the average number of days (standard deviation) spent on dental care services per year was 7.7 (7.1). Low income was associated with a decreased rate of dental care utilization regardless of age and sex. However, there was a significant inverse linear association between the number of days spent on dental care services and income levels for both sexes. Conclusions: There were income-related inequalities in access to dental care services, regardless of the age group or sex, within the Japanese universal health insurance system.
AB - Background: This study aimed to evaluate whether income-related inequalities in access to dental care services exist in Japan. Methods: The subjects included beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance (NHI) in Chiba City, Japan, who had been enrolled from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015. The presence or absence of dental visits and number of days spent on dental care services during the year were calculated using insurance claims submitted. Equivalent household income was calculated using individual income data from 1 January to 31 December 2013, declared for taxation. Results: Of the 216,211 enrolled subjects, 50.3% had dental care during the year. Among those with dental visits, the average number of days (standard deviation) spent on dental care services per year was 7.7 (7.1). Low income was associated with a decreased rate of dental care utilization regardless of age and sex. However, there was a significant inverse linear association between the number of days spent on dental care services and income levels for both sexes. Conclusions: There were income-related inequalities in access to dental care services, regardless of the age group or sex, within the Japanese universal health insurance system.
KW - Access to dental care services
KW - Inequality
KW - Socioeconomic status
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U2 - 10.3390/ijerph14050524
DO - 10.3390/ijerph14050524
M3 - Article
C2 - 28498342
AN - SCOPUS:85019241145
VL - 14
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
SN - 1661-7827
IS - 5
M1 - 524
ER -
