ArticleBMC public health2017
The impact of out-of-pocket payments for dental care on household finances in low and middle income countries.
Article in BMC public health, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 68 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
68 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 122 citations in OpenAlex.
- Decision-making regarding dental treatments - What factors matter from patients' perspective? A systematic review.BMC oral health · 2025Pooled it
- Inequality in Utilization of Dental Services: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.American journal of public health · 2018Pooled it
- Masticatory performance in aging populations: A scoping review of research landscapes in Japan, Sweden, and India.The Japanese dental science review · 2026Review
- Public Dental Expenditure and Dental Visits in Europe and Japan.Community dentistry and oral epidemiology · 2026Article
- Unheard voices in oral health: the mouth, oral health, and barriers to accessing dental care in disadvantaged communities and Venezuelan migrants in Bogotá.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- 11-year analysis of inequalities in access to oral health care in Peru.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- The SPACES Framework: Sustainable Oral Health Programs for Older Adults.Dentistry journal · 2026Article
- Exploring the challenges of a pilot dental services payment initiative: a qualitative policy analysis at an Iranian dental school.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- Racial and Ethnic Variations in Dental Care Utilization and Expenditures: Associations with Usual Source of Care and Foreign-Born Status.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Integrating oral health into Universal Health Coverage in Europe: A cross-sectional ecological analysis of services and outcomes.Medicine · 2026Article
- Bridging immunization and oral health: a role for paediatric dentists in mitigating vaccine hesitancy in Africa.Frontiers in oral health · 2026Article
- Intellectual capability and its association with severe dental caries treatment needs in young Israeli adults: a cross-sectional record-based study.Israel journal of health policy research · 2025Article
- Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Occupational Therapists in Promoting Oral Health: A Protocol for Mixed-Methods Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The impact of personal medical savings accounts on healthcare utilization and out-of-pocket costs in public basic health insurance: a national cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- A call for a paradigm shift to community-embedded, home-based primary preventive oral health care in Africa.Frontiers in oral health · 2025Article
- Every bite counts to achieve oral health: a scoping review on diet and oral health preventive practices.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- Economic Considerations in Oral Health: Bridging Gaps, Broadening Horizons.Journal of dental research · 2024Article
- Oral Health Care Out-of-Pocket Costs and Financial Hardship: A Scoping Review.Journal of dental research · 2024Article
- Universal coverage for oral health care in 27 low-income countries: a scoping review.Global health research and policy · 2024Article
- Evaluation of the Golden Proportion, Golden Percentage, and Recurring Esthetic Dental Proportion in Kenyans of African Descent.Clinical and experimental dental research · 2024Article
8 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDental care is extremely costly and beyond most people means in developing countries. The primary aim of this study was to determine the impact of out-of-pocket payments for dental care on household finances in 40 low and middle income countries. A second aim was to compare the burden of payments for dental care with that for other health services.
methodsWe used data from 174,257 adults, aged 18 years and above, who reported their total and itemized household expenditure in the past four weeks as part of the World Health Surveys. The financial burden on households was measured using the catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) and impoverishment approaches. A household was classified as facing CHE if it spent 40% or more of its capacity to pay, and as facing impoverishment if it fell below the country-specific poverty line after spending on health care was subtracted from household expenditure. The odds of experiencing CHE and impoverishment due to expenditure on dental care were estimated from two-level logistic regression models, controlling for various individual- and country-level covariates.
resultsHouseholds that paid for dental care had 1.88 (95% Confidence Interval: 1.78-1.99) greater odds of incurring CHE and 1.65 (95% CI: 1.52-1.80) greater odds of facing impoverishment, after adjustment for covariates. Furthermore, the impact of paying for dental care was lower than that for medications or drugs, inpatient care, outpatient care and laboratory tests but similar to that of health care products, traditional medicine and other health services.
conclusionHouseholds with recent dental care spending were more likely to use a large portion of their disposable income and fall below the poverty line. Policy makers ought to consider including dental care as part of universal health care and advocate for the inclusion of dental care coverage in health insurance packages.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.