Journal List > J Korean Acad Oral Health > v.38(2) > 1057597

Lim, Lee, Lee, Ju, Lee, and Oh: Utilization of dental care among mothers and children from multicultural families

Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to identify the status of dental care utilization among mothers and children from multicultural families and analyzing the related factors.

Methods

The subjects in this study were 131 mothers from multicultural families and 175 mothers from Korean (control) families who were selected by convenience sampling from the city of Nonsan. The dental care utilization among mothers and children from multicultural families and mothers and children from Korean families were compared. A questionnaire survey was conducted using the self-administration method for mothers from Korean families and by a face-to-face interviewing method for mothers from multicultural families.

Results

The proportion of subjects who visited the dentist’s office in the past year was not different between the two groups of mothers. However, this proportion was lower in children from multicultural families than those from Korean families. The factors that influenced the visit to dental clinics were age and spouse’s age among multicultural mothers and age, spouse’s age, personal perceptions about oral health, and oral health concerns among Korean mothers. The factors that influenced dental clinic visits were mother’s career, household income, education level of the mother, children’s age, mother’s dental clinic visits, mother’s perception of children’s oral health among multicultural children and father’s age, marriage duration of parents, children’s age, mother’s dental clinical visit, and the mother’s concerns about children’s oral health among Korean children.

Conclusions

Multicultural children visit the dental clinic a lot less than Korean children. Social economic factors such as household income, education level affect the use of dental clinic services by multicultural families.

References

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Table 1.
Dental treatment demand for the past one year by family type N (%)
Mothers Children
Multicultural Ordinary Multicultural Ordinary
Yes 69 (52.7) 98 (56.0) 41 (31.3) 114 (65.1)
No 62 (47.3) 77 (44.0) 90 (68.7) 61 (34.9)
P 0.643 <0.001
Table 2.
Type of received dental treatment of mothers
Ranking Multicultural N (%) Ordinary N (%)
1 Caries Tx 46 (66.7) Caries Tx 51 (52.0)
2 Prosthestics 23 (33.3) Periodontal Tx 36 (36.7)
3 Periodontal Tx 17 (24.6) Routine check-ups 23 (23.5)
4 Routine check-ups 13 (18.8) Prosthestics 17 (17.3)
5 Tooth removal 10 (14.5) 3rd Molar removal 15 (15.3)
6 3rd Molar removal 7 (10.1) Dental Preventive 12 (12.2)
7 Preventive Care 2 (2.9) Tooth removal 8 (8.2)
8 Orthodontics/Esthetic 1 (1.4) Orthodontics/Esthetic 3 (3.1)

Plural response.

Table 3.
Reasons of unmet need of dental treatment in mothers
Ranking Multicultural N (%) Ordinary N (%)
1 Monetary burden 32 (51.6) Less important 42 (54.5)
2 Fear 25 (40.3) Fear 27 (35.1)
3 Less important 21 (33.9) Monetary burden 24 (31.2)
4 No discomfort 13 (21.0) No discomfort 16 (20.8)
5 Annoying 11 (17.7) Annoying 14 (18.2)
6 No baby-sitter 9 (14.5) Healthy 11 (14.3)
7 Healthy 4 (6.5) No baby-sitter 9 (11.7)
8 Inconvenient traffic 3 (4.8) Pregnancy 3 (3.9)
9 Inconvenient communication 2 (3.2) Time unavailability 2 (2.6)
10 Time unavailability 2 (3.2)

Plural response.

Table 4.
Type of received dental treatment of children
Ranking Multicultural N (%) Ordinary N (%)
1 Caries Tx 26 (65.0) Deciduous teeth removal 56 (48.7)
2 Deciduous teeth removal 16 (40.0) Caries Tx 54 (47.0)
3 Routine check-ups 6 (15.0) Routine check-ups 48 (41.7)
4 Preventive care 4 (10.0) Preventive care 46 (40.0)
5 Prosthestics (7.5) Prosthestics 7 (6.1)

Plural response.

Table 5.
Dental clinic visit according to Korean proficiency of mothers N (%)
Proficiency in korean Type* Mothers Children
Yes No P Yes No P
Proficiency in Korean Good 27 (65.9) 14 (34.1) 0.041 17 (41.5) 24 (58.5) 0.090
Poor 42 (46.7) 48 (53.3) 24 (26.7) 66 (73.3)
Speaking Good 43 (65.2) 23 (34.8) 0.004 24 (36.4) 42 (63.6) 0.208
Poor 26 (40.0) 39 (60.0) 17 (26.2) 48 (73.8)
Listening Good 49 (64.5) 27 (35.5) 0.001 24 (31.6) 52 (68.4) 0.935
Poor 20 (36.4) 35 (63.6) 17 (30.9) 38 (69.1)
Writing Good 15 (55.6) 12 (44.4) 0.736 11 (40.7) 16 (59.3) 0.235
Poor 54 (51.9) 50 (48.1) 30 (28.8) 74 (71.2)
Reading Good 35 (62.5) 21 (37.5) 0.052 17 (30.4) 39 (69.6) 0.841
Poor 34 (45.3) 41 (54.7) 24 (32.0) 51 (68.0)

*Five point scale (good: 1-2, poor: 3-5).

Table 6.
The logistic regression for dental clinic visit of mothers
B Exp P
Multicultural Mothers
Age ―0.176 0.838 <0.001
Father's age 0.173 1.188 <0.001
R-square (Cox and Snell) .240
Ordinary Mothers
Age 0.185 1.204 <0.001
Father's age ―0.173 0.841 <0.001
Perceived self oral health status 0.410 1.506 0.019
Concerns about self oral health ―0.647 0.524 0.017
R-square (Cox and Snell) .301
Table 7.
The logistic regression for dental clinic visits of children
B Exp P
Multicultural children
mother's career (employed) 1.028 2.795 0.035
Household income (≤1.5 millions KRW) 1.643 5.168 0.003
Education level of mother (above than college) 1.241 3.460 0.046
Children's age 0.512 1.669 0.008
Mother's dental clinic visits 2.407 11.105 <0.001
Mother's perception about children's oral health 1.205 3.338 <0.001
R-square (Cox and Snell) .273
Ordinary children
Father's age ―0.119 0.888 0.001
Marriage duration 0.199 1.221 0.005
Children's age 0.343 1.410 0.021
Mother's dental clinic visits 1.259 3.523 <0.001
Mother's concerns about oral health of children ―0.725 0.484 0.016
R-square (Cox and Snell) .385
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