A difference-in-differences analysis of the effect of free dental check-ups in Scotland

Divine Ikenwilo

Social Science & Medicine, 2013, vol. 83, issue C, 10-18

Abstract: The Scottish Government introduced free NHS dental check-ups in April 2006 as a way of encouraging utilisation and improving the oral health of residents. We use data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), a nationally representative data of 117761 individual respondents in the United Kingdom covering the period between 2001 and 2008 to evaluate the impact of this policy on utilisation of NHS dental check-ups in Scotland, using a difference-in-difference approach. Results show that there was a 3–4 percent increase in NHS dental check-up in Scotland, compared to the rest of the UK. Results suggest that a removal of financial barrier to dental check-ups does indeed lead to a modest increase in utilisation, and may have wider implications for the delivery of dental care in Scotland.

Keywords: Scotland; National health service; Dental check-up; Difference-in-difference; Panel data; Random effects probit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795361300052X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:83:y:2013:i:c:p:10-18

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.01.027

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().