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Ahn and Shin: Effectiveness of oral examination for infants and toddlers: effects on subsequent utilization and costs
Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health 2017; 41(2): 73-79.

Published online: 30 June 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.11149/jkaoh.2017.41.2.73

Effectiveness of oral examination for infants and toddlers: effects on subsequent utilization and costs

Eunsuk Ahn1, 2, Hosung Shin1

1Department of Social and Humanity in Dentistry, College of Dentistry, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Korea.

2Department of Dental Hygiene, Kyungbok University, Pocheon, Korea.

Corresponding Author: Hosung Shin. Department of Social and Humanity in Dentistry, College of Dentistry, Wonkwang University, 460 Iksan-daero, Iksan 54538, Korea. Tel: +82-63-850-6995, Fax: +82-63-850-6934, shinhosung@gmail.com

Received 6 February 2017       Revised 7 March 2017       Accepted 28 March 2017

Copyright © 2017 by Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health

(open-access):

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Objectives

With increasing emphasis being placed on early interventions for health promotion, early dental visits to prevent early childhood caries have been receiving more attention. Infant oral health examinations have been implemented as a component of early health examination in South Korea, but there is a lack of research on its effectiveness. This study aimed to estimate the effectiveness of infant and toddler oral health examinations by performing economic analyses of infant health examinations and dental treatment costs after examinations.

Methods

The analyses were conducted using the National Health Insurance Service claims data. Subjects included in this study were children who had undergone their “3rd infant oral health examination (54-65 months)” between 2010 and 2014. To estimate dental treatment costs over the five years, four retrospective cohorts were evaluated, which included a total of 256,965 subjects. The direct medical costs following infant oral health examinations were calculated over five years (including only costs from health insurance claims), and the effects of infant oral health examinations were compared.

Results

Although the rate of infant oral health examinations showed a persistently increasing trend, differences were observed according to the type of health insurance. Children who underwent infant oral health examinations showed a higher number of visits to the dentist, but lower dental treatment costs compared with children who did not undergo examinations.

Conclusions

This study confirmed, from an economic perspective, the effects of policy interventions that emphasize the necessity of early intervention and a life-course health management strategy, based on the concept that oral health is not determined at specific time points, but rather is determined by the accumulation of exposure to various factors over the course of life.

Keywords: Early health intervention, Early childhood caries, Economic effectiveness, Oral health examinations

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Study population.

jkaoh-41-73-g001
Table 1

National Health Insurance Service claims data

jkaoh-41-73-i001
Table 2

Oral examination rate for Infant and toddlers by year

jkaoh-41-73-i002

Group1: Below 3 Income Quintile; Group2: 4/6 Income Quintile; Group3: 7 Income Quintile; Group4: 8 Income Quintile; Group5: 9/10 Income Quintile.

Table 3

Utilization of dental clinic by age

jkaoh-41-73-i003

Obs, observations; SE, standard error.

Table 4

Cost of dental treatment by age

jkaoh-41-73-i004

Obs, observations; SE, standard error.

Notes

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2016S1A5A8018496).

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