Italian Response to Coronavirus Pandemic in Dental Care Access: The DeCADE Study

Luca Aquilanti, Silvia Gallegati, Valerio Temperini, Luigi Ferrante, Edlira Skrami, Maurizio Procaccini and Giorgio Rappelli
Additional contact information
Luca Aquilanti: Department of Clinical Specialistic and Dental Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, 60126 Ancona, Italy
Silvia Gallegati: Department of Management, Polytechnic University of Marche, 60121 Ancona, Italy
Valerio Temperini: Department of Management, Polytechnic University of Marche, 60121 Ancona, Italy
Luigi Ferrante: Centre of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Information Technology, Polytechnic University of Marche, 60126 Ancona, Italy
Edlira Skrami: Centre of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Information Technology, Polytechnic University of Marche, 60126 Ancona, Italy
Maurizio Procaccini: Department of Clinical Specialistic and Dental Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, 60126 Ancona, Italy
Giorgio Rappelli: Department of Clinical Specialistic and Dental Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, 60126 Ancona, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-12

Abstract: The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the willingness, anxiety and concerns of Italian people on undergoing dental appointments. An anonymous survey was posted online on social media on 11 May 2020 and was completed by 1003 respondents in one week. Multiple correspondence analysis and multiple logistic regression were used to evaluate the association between socio-demographic characteristics, dental care access, contagion fear of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), trust in dentists regarding sanitization procedures and perception of the impact of the risk of contagion on dental care. Subjects with a high level of education, attending public dental offices and that are used to go to dental offices for urgent care would not feel comfortable in undergoing a dental appointment and would prefer to postpone or cancel dental visits, waiting for a decrease in the number of the contagions. Moreover, the risk of canceling or postponing the appointment at the dentist was 1.59 times greater in those who claimed to be strongly influenced by SARS-CoV-2. Fear of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), new cases decrease and the not urgent nature of dental visits influenced more than the lowered income household on upcoming or resuming dental appointments. In the next months, despite the forecasted economic crisis caused by coronavirus pandemic, fear and anxiety generated by the spread of the virus will impact more than the lowered familiar income with regards to access to dental care.

Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus; public opinion; dental care access; behavior; survey; consumer perception; anxiety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/6977/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/6977/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:19:p:6977-:d:418285

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().