Barriers Affecting the Utilization of Dental Health Services among Community Dwelling Older Adults

Document Type : Research articles

Authors

1 Gerontological Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Mansoura University

2 Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura

Abstract

Adequate access to oral health care services becomes essential, as it provides opportunities for
health promotion, disease prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment of oral diseases. Objective:
Assess the barriers affecting the utilization of dental health services among community dwelling older
adults. Setting: The geriatric outpatient clinics of specialized medical hospital, Mansoura University
and general hospital, Ministry of Health. Subjects: 612 elderly persons aged 60 years and above.
Tools: Older Adults' Socio-demgraphic and Clinical Data Structured Interview Schedule, Older
Adults' Barriers to dental care utilization Structured Interview Schedule, Katz and Akpom Scale and
Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT). Results: The most frequent barriers reported by the elders are
high cost of dental services, lack of awareness about the importance of dental checkup, fear of dental
procedure, difficult transportation and long distance, and bad past experience. Conclusion:
Predictors of dental health visits among elderly were basic and secondary education, enough income,
elderly suffering from hypertension, elderly free from liver diseases and elderly with healthy oral
status. Recommendations: Design oral health educational program for community dwelling older
adults about the importance of oral health routine checkup and the available community dental health
services.

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