Association between integrative and complementary health practices and use of dental services among older adults in Brazil: a cross-sectional study, 2019

OBJECTIVE: To analyze association between participation in integrative practices and regular use of dental services in Brazilian older adults. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study based on secondary data from the 2019 National Health Survey. All older adults aged 60 years and over were included. The study outcome was regular dental service use. Poisson regression models were used to estimate crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (PRs) and their respective at confidence intervals 95% (95%CI). RESULTS: A total of 22,728 older adults were analyzed. Most were female (55.5%), reported that they were White (51.3%), had incomplete primary education (47.0%); 7.0% (95%CI 6.8;7.5) had used some form of integrative practice and 34.3% (95%CI 33.2;35.4) had used their dental service regularly. Individuals who used integrative practices had higher prevalence of dental service use even after adjusting the model (PR = 1.15; 95%CI 1.07;1.23). CONCLUSION: Among Brazilian older adults use of integrative practices was associated with regular use of dental services.