ArticleThe Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association2021
Rural-Urban Differences in Dental Service Utilization and Dental Service Procedures Received Among US Adults: Results From the 2016 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.
Article in The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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
31 citing papers in PubMed, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dental Workforce Trends and Emerging Workforce Challenges: Perspectives from a 15-Year Longitudinal Analysis of the Israeli Experience (2008-2023).Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Geospatial Analysis of Tooth Loss Among the US Geriatric Population by Zip Code: The Role of Socioeconomic and Racial Factors.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Demographic, Geographic, and Temporal Patterns of Adult Dental Emergency Presentations in Arad County, Western Romania.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- E-cigarette use in vehicles: factors associated with secondhand exposure and behaviour from a US young adult sample in 2024.Tobacco control · 2026Article
- The perspectives of teachers on barriers to optimum oral health: a qualitative study.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- Preferred conditions for promoting participation in on-site oral health surveys among Japanese adults: insights from a conjoint analysis.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Interdisciplinary Strategies for Improving Oral Health in Older Adults: A Comprehensive Review.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Review
- Article
- Strengthening geriatric oral health care through interprofessional education: policy and practice implications.Frontiers in dental medicine · 2026Review
- Relationship Between Short Sleep, Exercise Frequency and Media Use with Oral Health in Korean Elementary School Children: A Cross-Sectional Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mapping the prosthodontic workforce in Saudi Arabia: Patterns, training backgrounds, professional ranks, and regional distributions.The Saudi dental journal · 2025Article
- Inequalities in dental service utilization among adults in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal: a population-based cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Associations Between Diverse Beverage Consumption Patterns and Oral Health: Evidence from a National Survey in Hungary.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Review
- Estimating county-level dental care utilization among adults in California using multilevel modeling with raking approach.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Oral Health in Early Childhood: A Cross-Sectional Study on Maternal Knowledge, Attitude and Practice.Cureus · 2025Article
- Correlation Between Type of Edentulism, Age, Socioeconomic Status and General Health.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Disparities of Delayed Dental Visits and Severe Tooth Loss Among Older Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders in Hawai'i: A Cross-Sectional Study of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Data from 2012 to 2020.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
- Employing AI tools to predict features for dental care use in the United States during the global respiratory illness outbreak.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeTo assess rural-urban differences in dental service use and procedures and to explore the interaction effects of individual- and county-level factors on having dental service use and procedures.
methodsData were from the 2016 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). We assessed rural-urban differences in 3 outcome variables: number of dental visits (1, 2, or 3+ visits), preventive care procedures (Yes/No), and treatment procedures (Yes/No). The study sample included 8,199 adults ≥ 18 years of age who reported at least 1 dental visit in the past year. Sampling weights embedded in MEPS were incorporated into all the analyses.
findingsA significant interaction between residential location and race/ethnicity (P = .030) suggested limited access to dental visits for minority groups, especially for blacks in the more rural areas. Adults from a more rural area were less likely to have received a preventive procedure (AOR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.35-0.87) than those from an urban area. Adults of racial/ethnic minority groups, with lower SES, and without dental insurance were less likely to have received a preventive procedure (all P < .01) but were more likely to have received a treatment procedure (all P < .05).
conclusionsThe study showed rural adults were less likely to have received preventive dental procedures than their urban counterparts. Racial/ethnic minority groups living in a more rural area had even more limited access to dental services. Innovative service delivery models that integrate telehealth and community-based case management may contribute to addressing these gaps in rural communities.
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.