Kaur, Gagandeep;
Tsakos, Georgios;
Yap, Tami;
King, Tania;
Mathur, Manu Raj;
Singh, Ankur;
(2025)
The case for affordable oral health care: the public voice.
Public Health Research & Practice
, 35
(2)
, Article PU24009. 10.1071/PU24009.
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Abstract
Objectives. Although we have scientific and policy discussions on the need for oral health care, rarely have populations been asked about their expectations regarding this important matter. Therefore, the public voice has been absent from these discussions. This study aims to quantify public support among working-age Australian adults regarding the essentiality of oral health care and assess whether oral health care affordability differs by sociodemographic characteristics. Study type. Descriptive analysis of nationally representative data from Australia. Methods. Using cross-sectional survey weights, we analysed data from wave 18 (2018) of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia study. The analysis included 11,028 working-age Australians aged 20–54 years. Results. Almost all (96.4%) working-age Australian adults considered oral health care as essential; however, 6.5% do not get treatment due to lack of affordability. Higher proportions of specific disadvantaged groups, such as the unemployed, those with lower educational attainment, lower income, and participants with disability, reported not availing themselves of oral health care due to lack of affordability compared to less disadvantaged groups. Conclusion. Overwhelmingly, working-age Australian adults considered oral health care to be essential. The vast majority reported getting oral health care when needed, indicating no major affordability concerns. However, the lack of affordable dental care was a barrier, particularly for the disadvantaged groups, preventing them from accessing oral health services. This highlights the need to provide equitable oral health care, ideally by implementing the principles of universal oral health coverage.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The case for affordable oral health care: the public voice |
| Location: | Australia |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1071/PU24009 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1071/pu24009 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Sax Institute. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC) |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Public, Environmental & Occupational Health, affordability, Australian adults, dental care, disadvantaged groups, Household, Income and Labour Dynamics survey, HILDA, oral health care, universal health coverage, working-age Australians, DENTAL-CARE, NEEDS, INEQUALITIES, COVERAGE, EQUITY |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10214143 |
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