Psychosocial Risk Exposure Limits Routine Pediatric Oral Health Care
Dorota T. Kopycka-Kedzierawski, DDS, MPH,
Changyong Feng, PhD,
Ronald J. Billings, DDS, MSD,
Gene E. Watson, DDS, PhD,
Patricia G. Ragusa, BA,
Kimberly Flint, AA,
Cynthia L. Wong, DMD, MS,
Steven R. Gill, PhD,
Samantha Manning, MS,
Thomas G. O'Connor, PhD
Affiliations
Dorota T. Kopycka-Kedzierawski, DDS, MPH
Department of Dentistry, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Address correspondence to: Dorota T. Kopycka-Kedzierawski, DDS, MPH, Department of Dentistry, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, 625 Elmwood Avenue, Box 683, Rochester NY 14620.
Changyong Feng, PhD
Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
Ronald J. Billings, DDS, MSD
Department of Dentistry, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
Gene E. Watson, DDS, PhD
Department of Dentistry, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Department of Pharmacology & Physiology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Department of Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
Patricia G. Ragusa, BA
Department of Dentistry, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
Kimberly Flint, AA
Department of Dentistry, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
Cynthia L. Wong, DMD, MS
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Department of Pediatrics, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
Steven R. Gill, PhD
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Department of Pediatrics, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
Samantha Manning, MS
Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
Thomas G. O'Connor, PhD
Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
Introduction: This study aimed to identify social, psychological, and contextual factors that influenced attendance at routine oral health visits in a cohort of 189 preschool children who were followed over a 2-year period. Methods: Generalized estimating equation was used to examine the association between clinic attendance and the predictors. ORs and 95% CIs were reported in the multiple logistic regression models. The study was conducted in Rochester, New York, between February 2016 and February 2021. Results: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic declaration, the rate of canceled and no-show appointments was greater for routine clinic visits (20% and 24%, respectively) than for research visits (14% and 9%, respectively) for the same participants; these rates increased during the pandemic. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, the likelihood of a canceled or no-show appointment was associated with parental depression (OR=1.06, CI=1.03, 1.09), regardless of the type or occurrence of the visit. Conclusions: Findings from this study demonstrate that attendance to oral health care in young children is reliably reduced with parental depression and that this may provide one mechanism for early emerging health inequalities of oral health.
