The role of socio-economic and institutional factors in explaining dental health inequalities

This paper aims to investigate the effect of socio-economic and institutional factors on dental health outcomes and inequalities among countries. By applying the oral health status indicator DMFT 12-year-olds index, 117 countries were classified into three dental health groups. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to examine the relations among a set of socio-economic and institutional variables and dental health inequalities. Variables included are GDP per capita, current health expenditures, number of dentists, Corruption Perceptions Index, quality of health services, unemployment rate, internal conflict, Gini index, UHC service index, and general government health expenditures. The results showed that higher corruption prevalence in a country is associated with poor outcomes in a nation's dental health. In countries with the highest satisfaction with the quality of health services, this may be attributed to substantial public health expenditures. The size of health expenditures and the number of dentists available to the country’s population do not necessarily grant advanced dental health, even in economically prosperous countries. Indicators of social inequality do not explain the dental health outcomes, suggesting there are other factors describing better the disparities among low- and higher- DMFT index country groups. Inequalities in dental health are explained by institutional factors, corruption prevalence, and public health funding being important ones. Policy implications towards more generous public funding of health services and implementation of anti-corruption measures could contribute to seizing dental health inequalities worldwide.