Dental Care Utilization of Thai populations in 2003.

Abstract

The objectives of this study were 1) to compare the health insurance coverage, before and after the Universal Coverage Project and 2) to determine utilization of dental care by age, region and health insurance scheme in 2003. Data from the 2003 Health and Social Welfare Survey data by National Statistics Office was reused and elaborated for the study. This survey was conducted by household questionnaire in April 2003, by stratified two-stage sampling of 26,520 households and 68433 cases.

The study revealed that the coverage of health insurance scheme was increased from 90.2 % in 2001 to 95.5 % in 2003. The utilization of general population to overall dental care service was only 10.6 percent with 1.6 visit/year per customer in average. The 6-14 years of age was the highest utilizing - age groups (16.5 percent with 1.5 visit/ year). Bangkok dwellers were the highest area of utilization (12.9 percent with 2.1 visit/ year) while Central region was the lowest (9.2 percent with 1.6 visit/ year). Regarding the scheme, private insuree and CSMBS were among the highest utilization (18.2 percent and 17.3 percent). Considering the last dental care visit, the proportion to public services accounted to 55.5 percent, with 42.4 % under 30 baht medical scheme. Further study is needed to elaborate more in detail about type, level and proportion of oral treatment and health promotion so that behavior pattern and needs of dental service would be clarified.