ArticleInternational journal for equity in health2018
Socioeconomic inequality in self-reported unmet need for oral health services in adults aged 50 years and over in China, Ghana, and India.
Article in International journal for equity in health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systematic Review of the Literature on Dental Caries and Periodontal Disease in Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Individuals.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Oral Health Service Utilisation Behaviour and Its Influencing Factors Among Older Adults: An Empirical Study Based on the Composite Health Behaviour Model.Oral health & preventive dentistry · 2026Article
- Effect of Regional Deprivation and Dental Care Resources on the Unmet Dental Care Needs due to Cost of Older Individuals in South Korea.Gerodontology · 2025Article
- The Challenge of Hepatitis D Virus Coinfection in Iran: Age, Access, and Unanswered Public Health Questions.Iranian journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- Unmet healthcare needs, out-of-pocket payments and catastrophic health expenditures among hypertensive adults in Bangladesh.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Social capital and regional influences: key predictors of unmet dental care needs among older adults in Korea.Epidemiology and health · 2025Article
- Oral health issues of the disabled population: a growing concern in China.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Structural determinants of inequalities in untreated dental caries in the Global Burden of Disease Study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Analysis of factors associated with tooth loss in older adults from 1995 to 2015: a population-based cross-sectional survey in Guangdong, China.Clinical oral investigations · 2024Article
- Exploring unmet healthcare needs and associated inequalities among middle-aged and older adults in Eastern China during the progression toward universal health coverage.Health economics review · 2024Article
- The impact of unmet treatment need on oral health related quality of life: a questionnaire survey.BMC oral health · 2024Article
- "I was afraid to go to the hospital": A qualitative analysis and ethical implications of the impacts of COVID-19 on the health and medical care of older adults in Ethiopia.SAGE open medicine · 2024Article
- A scoping review exploring oral health inequalities in India: a call for action to reform policy, practice and research.International journal for equity in health · 2023Article
- Understanding the association between unmet dental care needs and household food security status among older people in Ghana.BMC oral health · 2023Article
- Indicators of integrating oral health care within universal health coverage and general health care in low-, middle-, and high-income countries: a scoping review.BMC oral health · 2023Article
- Understanding the Link between Household Food Insecurity and Self-Rated Oral Health in Ghana.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The oral microbiome and breast cancer and nonmalignant breast disease, and its relationship with the fecal microbiome in the Ghana Breast Health Study.International journal of cancer · 2022Article
- Improving the Diagnostic Performance by Adding Methylation Marker to Conventional Visual Examination in Identifying Oral Cancer.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Assessment of oral health status in a Ghanaian population: rationale, methods, and population characteristics.BMC oral health · 2022Article
- A Five-Year Retrospective Study of 746 Cases with Maxillofacial Space Infection in Western China.Infection and drug resistance · 2022Article
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.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study estimated that oral conditions affect 3.5 billion people worldwide with a higher burden among older adults and those who are socially and economically disadvantaged. Studies of inequalities in the use of oral health services by those in need have been conducted in high-income countries but evidence from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited. This study measures and describes socioeconomic inequality in self-reported unmet need for oral health services in adults aged 50 years and over, in China, Ghana and India.
methodsA cross-sectional analysis of national survey data from the WHO SAGE Wave 1 (2007-2010) was conducted. Study samples in China (n = 1591), Ghana (n = 425) and India (n = 1307) were conditioned on self-reported need for oral health services in the previous 12 months. The binary dependent variable, unmet need for oral health services, was derived from questions about self-reported need and service use. Prevalence was estimated by country. Unmet need was measured and compared in terms of relative levels of education and household wealth. The methods were logistic regression and the relative index of inequality (RII). Models were adjusted for age, sex, area of residence, marital status, work status and self-rated health.
resultsThe prevalence of unmet need was 60, 80, and 62% in China, Ghana and India respectively. The adjusted RII for education was statistically significant for China (1.5, 95% CI:1.2-1.9), Ghana (1.4, 95% CI: 1.1-1.7), and India (1.5, 95% CI:1.2-2.0), whereas the adjusted RII for wealth was significant only in Ghana (1.3, 95% CI:1.1-1.6). Male sex was significantly associated with self-reported unmet need for oral health services in India.
conclusionsGiven rapid population ageing, further evidence of socioeconomic inequalities in unmet need for oral health services by older adults in LMICs is needed to inform policies to mitigate inequalities in the availability of oral health services. Oral health is a universal public health issue requiring attention and action on multiple levels and across the public private divide.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.