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Socioeconomic Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Emergency Public Dental Services in Saudi Arabia: A Contingent Valuation Approach

Dental diseases remain major health problems worldwide, leading to pain, discomfort, and even death. In Saudi Arabia, public dental care services (i.e., services provided by government-owned health facilities) are provided free of charge for all Saudi citizens. However, public dental care facilities...

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Autores principales: Hawsawi, Halah Saleh, Immurana, Mustapha, Al-Hanawi, Mohammed Khaled
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9690303/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36429921
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215205
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author Hawsawi, Halah Saleh
Immurana, Mustapha
Al-Hanawi, Mohammed Khaled
author_facet Hawsawi, Halah Saleh
Immurana, Mustapha
Al-Hanawi, Mohammed Khaled
author_sort Hawsawi, Halah Saleh
collection PubMed
description Dental diseases remain major health problems worldwide, leading to pain, discomfort, and even death. In Saudi Arabia, public dental care services (i.e., services provided by government-owned health facilities) are provided free of charge for all Saudi citizens. However, public dental care facilities are overburdened and overcrowded, resulting in long waiting times to access dental care services. The consequent limited access to dental services can prolong discomfort and delay pain management, thereby exacerbating the suffering of patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the socioeconomic determinants of the willingness to pay for immediate public dental care in the face of a dental emergency in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional design was employed to obtain data from adult citizens of Saudi Arabia who were residents of the Holy City of Makkah. A pre-tested online questionnaire was used to obtain the responses from 549 individuals, selected through a snowball sampling technique, from 15 July to 10 August 2021. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages), Pearson’s chi-square test, and binary probit regression were used as estimation techniques. The findings showed that 79.4% of the respondents were willing to pay for immediate public dental services, with the majority (86%) expressing a willingness to pay less than 500 Saudi Riyal (SAR). The binary probit regression estimates showed that respondents who were unemployed, those with a high school level of education or below, and those without private health insurance were less likely to be willing to pay for immediate public dental services. Thus, policies and initiatives aimed at enhancing the willingness to pay for immediate public dental services should target the unemployed, those with a high school level of education or below, and people without private health insurance.
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spelling pubmed-96903032022-11-25 Socioeconomic Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Emergency Public Dental Services in Saudi Arabia: A Contingent Valuation Approach Hawsawi, Halah Saleh Immurana, Mustapha Al-Hanawi, Mohammed Khaled Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Dental diseases remain major health problems worldwide, leading to pain, discomfort, and even death. In Saudi Arabia, public dental care services (i.e., services provided by government-owned health facilities) are provided free of charge for all Saudi citizens. However, public dental care facilities are overburdened and overcrowded, resulting in long waiting times to access dental care services. The consequent limited access to dental services can prolong discomfort and delay pain management, thereby exacerbating the suffering of patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the socioeconomic determinants of the willingness to pay for immediate public dental care in the face of a dental emergency in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional design was employed to obtain data from adult citizens of Saudi Arabia who were residents of the Holy City of Makkah. A pre-tested online questionnaire was used to obtain the responses from 549 individuals, selected through a snowball sampling technique, from 15 July to 10 August 2021. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages), Pearson’s chi-square test, and binary probit regression were used as estimation techniques. The findings showed that 79.4% of the respondents were willing to pay for immediate public dental services, with the majority (86%) expressing a willingness to pay less than 500 Saudi Riyal (SAR). The binary probit regression estimates showed that respondents who were unemployed, those with a high school level of education or below, and those without private health insurance were less likely to be willing to pay for immediate public dental services. Thus, policies and initiatives aimed at enhancing the willingness to pay for immediate public dental services should target the unemployed, those with a high school level of education or below, and people without private health insurance. MDPI 2022-11-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9690303/ /pubmed/36429921 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215205 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Hawsawi, Halah Saleh
Immurana, Mustapha
Al-Hanawi, Mohammed Khaled
Socioeconomic Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Emergency Public Dental Services in Saudi Arabia: A Contingent Valuation Approach
title Socioeconomic Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Emergency Public Dental Services in Saudi Arabia: A Contingent Valuation Approach
title_full Socioeconomic Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Emergency Public Dental Services in Saudi Arabia: A Contingent Valuation Approach
title_fullStr Socioeconomic Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Emergency Public Dental Services in Saudi Arabia: A Contingent Valuation Approach
title_full_unstemmed Socioeconomic Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Emergency Public Dental Services in Saudi Arabia: A Contingent Valuation Approach
title_short Socioeconomic Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Emergency Public Dental Services in Saudi Arabia: A Contingent Valuation Approach
title_sort socioeconomic determinants of willingness to pay for emergency public dental services in saudi arabia: a contingent valuation approach
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9690303/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36429921
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215205
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