Predictors of Dental Care Service Utilization among Hispanics/Latinos in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama

The purpose of this research was to examine the potential factors of socio-economic status (SES), healthcare coverage and acculturation as barriers to dental healthcare service utilization in Hispanics/Latinos. A Hispanic/Latino Community Health Needs Assessment was administered to 411 participants by the bilingual interpreter. The descriptive, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression statitsics were performed to predict dental care service utilization. Of all participants, non-Mexicans were more likely to utilize dental services compared to Mexicans (52% vs. 29%, p -value <0.001). With respect to gender, females were more likely to acquire dental services than males (53% vs. 31%, p -value < 0.001). The level of education, income, acculturation and health insurance status were also significantly related to dental service utilization. However, in a multivariate logistic regression model that included Mexicans vs. non-Mexicans, gender, education, income, acculturation, health insurance coverage; female gender and health insurance coverage were significant independent predictors of dental service utilization. The odds of dental service utilization is 2.1 times higher in women than that of males (95% CI: 1.3-3.4); and 3.2 times higher in those who have health insurance than those who do not have health insurance (95% CI: 1.7-5.8). The results of this study underscore the need for health care coverage irrespective of their SES and acculturation characteristics.