Cargando…

Postponed Dental Visits during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Correlates. Evidence from the Nationally Representative COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO)

(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by various societal and economic challenges. Furthermore, it is associated with major health challenges. Oral health is a key component of health. Therefore, both curative and preventive dental visits are important during pandemics. Since there is...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hajek, André, De Bock, Freia, Huebl, Lena, Kretzler, Benedikt, König, Hans-Helmut
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7824850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33466552
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9010050
_version_ 1783640177968676864
author Hajek, André
De Bock, Freia
Huebl, Lena
Kretzler, Benedikt
König, Hans-Helmut
author_facet Hajek, André
De Bock, Freia
Huebl, Lena
Kretzler, Benedikt
König, Hans-Helmut
author_sort Hajek, André
collection PubMed
description (1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by various societal and economic challenges. Furthermore, it is associated with major health challenges. Oral health is a key component of health. Therefore, both curative and preventive dental visits are important during pandemics. Since there is a lack of nationally representative studies focusing on postponed dental visits and their correlates during the COVID-19 pandemic, we aimed to fill this gap in knowledge; (2) Methods: Cross-sectional data (wave 17) were collected from a nationally representative online-survey (COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO)) conducted in July 2020. The analytical sample consisted of 974 individuals (average age was 45.9 years (SD: 16.5, from 18 to 74 years)). The outcome measure was postponed dental visits since March 2020 (yes; no) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the type of postponed dental visits was recorded (check-up/regular dental examination; pain/dental complaints; planned therapy); (3) Results: 22% of participants reported to have postponed dental visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020, whereas 78% of individuals did not report postponed visits (“no, attended as planned”: 29.2%; “no, examining pending”: 44.9%; “no, other reasons”: 3.9%). Among individuals who reported postponed dental visits, 72% postponed a “check-up/regular dental examination”, whereas 8.4% postponed a dental visit despite “pain/dental complaints” and 19.6% postponed “planned therapy”. Furthermore, multiple logistic regressions showed that the likelihood of postponed dental visits was positively associated with being younger (aged 65 and older, OR: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.22–0.85; compared to individuals 18 to 29 years), and higher affect regarding COVID-19 (OR: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.13–1.64); (4) Conclusions: Our study showed that more than one out of five individuals postponed a dental visit—particularly check-ups and regular dental examination—due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020. Several correlates of these postponed visits have been identified. This may help identify and address individuals at risk for deterioration of oral health amplified by postponed dental visits.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7824850
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-78248502021-01-24 Postponed Dental Visits during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Correlates. Evidence from the Nationally Representative COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO) Hajek, André De Bock, Freia Huebl, Lena Kretzler, Benedikt König, Hans-Helmut Healthcare (Basel) Article (1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by various societal and economic challenges. Furthermore, it is associated with major health challenges. Oral health is a key component of health. Therefore, both curative and preventive dental visits are important during pandemics. Since there is a lack of nationally representative studies focusing on postponed dental visits and their correlates during the COVID-19 pandemic, we aimed to fill this gap in knowledge; (2) Methods: Cross-sectional data (wave 17) were collected from a nationally representative online-survey (COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO)) conducted in July 2020. The analytical sample consisted of 974 individuals (average age was 45.9 years (SD: 16.5, from 18 to 74 years)). The outcome measure was postponed dental visits since March 2020 (yes; no) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the type of postponed dental visits was recorded (check-up/regular dental examination; pain/dental complaints; planned therapy); (3) Results: 22% of participants reported to have postponed dental visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020, whereas 78% of individuals did not report postponed visits (“no, attended as planned”: 29.2%; “no, examining pending”: 44.9%; “no, other reasons”: 3.9%). Among individuals who reported postponed dental visits, 72% postponed a “check-up/regular dental examination”, whereas 8.4% postponed a dental visit despite “pain/dental complaints” and 19.6% postponed “planned therapy”. Furthermore, multiple logistic regressions showed that the likelihood of postponed dental visits was positively associated with being younger (aged 65 and older, OR: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.22–0.85; compared to individuals 18 to 29 years), and higher affect regarding COVID-19 (OR: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.13–1.64); (4) Conclusions: Our study showed that more than one out of five individuals postponed a dental visit—particularly check-ups and regular dental examination—due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020. Several correlates of these postponed visits have been identified. This may help identify and address individuals at risk for deterioration of oral health amplified by postponed dental visits. MDPI 2021-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7824850/ /pubmed/33466552 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9010050 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Hajek, André
De Bock, Freia
Huebl, Lena
Kretzler, Benedikt
König, Hans-Helmut
Postponed Dental Visits during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Correlates. Evidence from the Nationally Representative COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO)
title Postponed Dental Visits during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Correlates. Evidence from the Nationally Representative COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO)
title_full Postponed Dental Visits during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Correlates. Evidence from the Nationally Representative COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO)
title_fullStr Postponed Dental Visits during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Correlates. Evidence from the Nationally Representative COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO)
title_full_unstemmed Postponed Dental Visits during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Correlates. Evidence from the Nationally Representative COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO)
title_short Postponed Dental Visits during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Correlates. Evidence from the Nationally Representative COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO)
title_sort postponed dental visits during the covid-19 pandemic and their correlates. evidence from the nationally representative covid-19 snapshot monitoring in germany (cosmo)
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7824850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33466552
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9010050
work_keys_str_mv AT hajekandre postponeddentalvisitsduringthecovid19pandemicandtheircorrelatesevidencefromthenationallyrepresentativecovid19snapshotmonitoringingermanycosmo
AT debockfreia postponeddentalvisitsduringthecovid19pandemicandtheircorrelatesevidencefromthenationallyrepresentativecovid19snapshotmonitoringingermanycosmo
AT huebllena postponeddentalvisitsduringthecovid19pandemicandtheircorrelatesevidencefromthenationallyrepresentativecovid19snapshotmonitoringingermanycosmo
AT kretzlerbenedikt postponeddentalvisitsduringthecovid19pandemicandtheircorrelatesevidencefromthenationallyrepresentativecovid19snapshotmonitoringingermanycosmo
AT konighanshelmut postponeddentalvisitsduringthecovid19pandemicandtheircorrelatesevidencefromthenationallyrepresentativecovid19snapshotmonitoringingermanycosmo