Factors Associated with Dental Service Use among Elderly in Subdistrict Health Promoting Hospitals, Lamplaimat District, Buriram Province

Abstract

     Dental service use can be seen as one of factors reflecting of oral health care system from the aspect of patients and oral health care providers. This cross-sectional analytical research was to study the factors associated with dental service use among the elderly in subdistrict health promoting hospitals, Lamplaimat district, Buriram province. Five-hundreds of older persons were recruited by stratified random sampling according to population proportion in each area. Data were collected by a questionnaire and were analyzed using Multiple logistic regression to test the associated factors of dental service utilization.

     The results showed that most samples were female (74.20%). Most of the samples were in the age range of 60-69 years (58.40%). The majority of the sample (64.20%) had medical diseases. In the past one-year, dental care utilization rate was 58.60%. The most dental service use was tooth extraction accounted for 23.80%. When analyzing the related factors, it was found that the factors that statistically associated with the use of dental services of the elderly were having oral health problems, reasons for choosing a place of dental service, dental treatment need, gaining knowledge of oral health care, and having enough income to cover expenses.