Research report
Lower use of dental services among long term cigarette smokers
L A Mucci, D R Brooks
Massachusetts
Department of Public Health, Bureau of Health Statistics, Research and
Evaluation, 250 Washington Street, 6th floor, Boston, MA 02108, USA
Correspondence to: Dr Mucci (lmucci{at}hsph.harvard.edu)
Accepted for publication 1 February 2001
STUDY OBJECTIVE
Given
the advanced stage of most oral cancer cases at diagnosis, it is
hypothesised that a significant proportion of higher risk adults do not
visit a dentist annually. The study objectives were to assess whether
long term smokers were less likely to visit the dentist.
DESIGNData from the
1998 Massachusetts Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a
population-based, random digit dial telephone health survey, were used
to evaluate whether adults at higher risk of oral cancer attributable
to long term cigarette smoking were less likely to go to the dentist,
controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, and health related characteristics.
PATIENTSA
representative sample of 2119 Massachusetts adults aged 35 and older.
MAIN RESULTSAdults
who were long term smokers were less likely than never smokers to have
visited the dentist in the previous year (adjusted OR = 0.69, 95%
confidence intervals (CI) = 0.48, 0.99). Moreover, adults who were at
higher risk from both long term smoking and low fruit and vegetable
consumption were even less likely to visit the dentist than adults with
neither risk factor (adjusted OR = 0.39, 95% CI = 0.22, 0.68). Among
long term smokers, the likelihood of a yearly examination decreased
with increasing smoking duration and amount smoked per day.
CONCLUSIONSThese
findings support the hypothesis that adults at higher risk of oral
cancer attributable to long term cigarette smoking are less likely to
have routine dental examinationss, even controlling for socioeconomic
and health related differences.
Keywords: oral cancer; dental visits; cigarette smoking
© 2001 by Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
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