Cargando…

Access to dental public services by disabled persons

BACKGROUND: According to the World Health Organization, one in every 10 people has a disability, and more than two-thirds of them do not receive any type of oral dental care. The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 guarantees all civilians including disabled people the right to healthcare, shaping the gu...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Leal Rocha, Lyana, Vieira de Lima Saintrain, Maria, Pimentel Gomes Fernandes Vieira-Meyer, Anya
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4367974/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25887657
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12903-015-0022-x
_version_ 1782362575765241856
author Leal Rocha, Lyana
Vieira de Lima Saintrain, Maria
Pimentel Gomes Fernandes Vieira-Meyer, Anya
author_facet Leal Rocha, Lyana
Vieira de Lima Saintrain, Maria
Pimentel Gomes Fernandes Vieira-Meyer, Anya
author_sort Leal Rocha, Lyana
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: According to the World Health Organization, one in every 10 people has a disability, and more than two-thirds of them do not receive any type of oral dental care. The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 guarantees all civilians including disabled people the right to healthcare, shaping the guidelines of the Brazilian National Health Care System (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS). However, there is limited information about the true accessibility of dental services. This study evaluated the accessibility of public dental services to persons with disabilities in Fortaleza, Ceará, which has the third highest disability rate in Brazil. METHODS: A cross-sectional quantitative study using structured questionnaires was administered to dentists (n = 89) and people with disabilities (n = 204) to evaluate the geographical, architectural, and organizational accessibility of health facilities, the communication between professionals and patients with disabilities, the demand for dental services, and factors influencing the use of dental services by people with motor, visual, and hearing impairments. RESULTS: 43.1% of people with disabilities do not recognize their service as a priority of Basic Health Units (BHU), 52.5% do not usually seek dental care, and of those who do (n = 97), 76.3% find it difficult to receive care and 84.5% only seek care on an emergency basis. Forty-five percent are unaware of the services offered in the BHU. Of the dentists, 56.2% reported difficulty in communicating with deaf patients, and 97.8% desired interpreters stationed in the BHU. People with disabilities gave better accessibility ratings than dentists (p = 0.001). 37.3% of the patients and 43.8% of dentists reported inadequate physical access infrastructure (including doors, hallways, waiting rooms, and offices). Dentists (60%) reported unsafe environments and transportation difficulties as geographical barriers, while most people with disabilities did not report noticing these barriers. CONCLUSIONS: While access to dental services has increased in Fortaleza, the lack of accessibility of health units and their surroundings does not promote the treatment of people with disabilities. Cultural, organizational, architectural, geographical, and communication barriers constrain the demand for and use of oral dental care services by this social segment.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4367974
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-43679742015-03-21 Access to dental public services by disabled persons Leal Rocha, Lyana Vieira de Lima Saintrain, Maria Pimentel Gomes Fernandes Vieira-Meyer, Anya BMC Oral Health Research Article BACKGROUND: According to the World Health Organization, one in every 10 people has a disability, and more than two-thirds of them do not receive any type of oral dental care. The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 guarantees all civilians including disabled people the right to healthcare, shaping the guidelines of the Brazilian National Health Care System (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS). However, there is limited information about the true accessibility of dental services. This study evaluated the accessibility of public dental services to persons with disabilities in Fortaleza, Ceará, which has the third highest disability rate in Brazil. METHODS: A cross-sectional quantitative study using structured questionnaires was administered to dentists (n = 89) and people with disabilities (n = 204) to evaluate the geographical, architectural, and organizational accessibility of health facilities, the communication between professionals and patients with disabilities, the demand for dental services, and factors influencing the use of dental services by people with motor, visual, and hearing impairments. RESULTS: 43.1% of people with disabilities do not recognize their service as a priority of Basic Health Units (BHU), 52.5% do not usually seek dental care, and of those who do (n = 97), 76.3% find it difficult to receive care and 84.5% only seek care on an emergency basis. Forty-five percent are unaware of the services offered in the BHU. Of the dentists, 56.2% reported difficulty in communicating with deaf patients, and 97.8% desired interpreters stationed in the BHU. People with disabilities gave better accessibility ratings than dentists (p = 0.001). 37.3% of the patients and 43.8% of dentists reported inadequate physical access infrastructure (including doors, hallways, waiting rooms, and offices). Dentists (60%) reported unsafe environments and transportation difficulties as geographical barriers, while most people with disabilities did not report noticing these barriers. CONCLUSIONS: While access to dental services has increased in Fortaleza, the lack of accessibility of health units and their surroundings does not promote the treatment of people with disabilities. Cultural, organizational, architectural, geographical, and communication barriers constrain the demand for and use of oral dental care services by this social segment. BioMed Central 2015-03-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4367974/ /pubmed/25887657 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12903-015-0022-x Text en © Rocha et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Leal Rocha, Lyana
Vieira de Lima Saintrain, Maria
Pimentel Gomes Fernandes Vieira-Meyer, Anya
Access to dental public services by disabled persons
title Access to dental public services by disabled persons
title_full Access to dental public services by disabled persons
title_fullStr Access to dental public services by disabled persons
title_full_unstemmed Access to dental public services by disabled persons
title_short Access to dental public services by disabled persons
title_sort access to dental public services by disabled persons
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4367974/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25887657
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12903-015-0022-x
work_keys_str_mv AT lealrochalyana accesstodentalpublicservicesbydisabledpersons
AT vieiradelimasaintrainmaria accesstodentalpublicservicesbydisabledpersons
AT pimentelgomesfernandesvieirameyeranya accesstodentalpublicservicesbydisabledpersons