Impact of diabetes diagnosis on dental care utilization: evidence from Finland

Mikko Nurminen and Hanna Rättö
Additional contact information
Hanna Rättö: Research Department, The Social Insurance Institution of Finland

Health Economics Review, 2023, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Background Poor oral health is associated with many chronic diseases, including diabetes. As diabetes can worsen oral health and vice versa, care guidelines recommend that patients with diabetes maintain good oral health and have regular dental checkups. We analyzed the impact of receiving an initial type 2 diabetes diagnosis on dental care utilization. Methods We used register data on residents aged over 25 in the city of Oulu, Finland, covering the years 2013–2018. We used the difference-in-differences method and individuals with no diabetes diagnosis as control group. As robustness checks, we used propensity score matching and constructed an alternative control group from patients that received the same diagnosis a few years apart. Results Despite the guideline recommendations, we found that receiving a diabetes diagnosis did not increase the probability for dental care visits in a two-year follow-up. The findings remained similar for both high-income and low-income persons. Conclusions The finding is concerning in terms of diabetes management and oral health. Further research is needed on the reasons behind the lack of response to guidelines.

Keywords: Diabetes; Dental care; Difference-in-differences; Finland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13561-023-00440-z Abstract (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:spr:hecrev:v:13:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-023-00440-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/13561

DOI: 10.1186/s13561-023-00440-z

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics Review is currently edited by J. Matthias Graf von der Schulenburg

More articles in Health Economics Review from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().