Impact of early head start in North Carolina on dental care use among children younger than 3 years

J.M. Burgette, J.S. Preisser, M. Weinberger, R.S. King, J.Y. Lee and R. Gary Rozier

American Journal of Public Health, 2017, vol. 107, issue 4, 614-620

Abstract: Objectives. To examine the effects of North Carolina Early Head Start (EHS), an early education program for low-income children younger than 3 years and their families, on dental care use among children. Methods. We performed a quasi-experimental study in which we interviewed 479 EHS and 699 non-EHS parent-child dyads at baseline (2010-2012) and at a 24-month followup (2012-2014). We estimated the effects of EHS participation on the probability of having a dental care visit after controlling for baseline dental care need and use and a propensity score covariate; we included random effects to account for EHS program clustering. Results.The odds of having a dental care visit of any type (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.74, 3.48) and having a preventive dental visit (adjusted OR = 2.6; 95% CI = 1.84, 3.63) were higher among EHS children than among non-EHS children. In addition, the adjusted mean number of dental care visits among EHS children was 1.3 times (95% CI = 1.17, 1.55) the mean number among non-EHS children. Conclusions. This study is the first, to our knowledge, to demonstrate that EHS participation increases dental care use among disadvantaged young children.

Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2016.303621_9

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303621

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