Pattern of Dental Service Utilization (DSU) and Its Determinants Among Hypertensive Patients in a Nigerian Tertiary Health Centre.

Introduction: The relationship between cardiovascular diseases and dental conditions has been studied. However, the awareness of hypertensive patients about dental health care is very low in Nigeria. Hence, there is a need to assess the dental service utilisation in the population.Objective: To assess the pattern and determinants of dental service utilisation in a population of hypertensives in NigeriaMethodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the cardiology outpatient clinic of University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH)), Nigeria. Two hundred and thirty-six (236) consented subjects were enrolled to participate in the study. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect data on demographics, hypertension history, and dental service utilisation. The data collected was analysed on IBM SPSS 25. Descriptive statistics were carried out for the socioeconomic and dental utilisation variables. Pearson’s Chi-square was used to test for the association between utilisation of dental services variables and the significant difference in the independent variables. Binary logistic regression was used to identify the factors independently associated with dental service utilisation. Significance was inferred at a p-value of ≤0.05.Results: The mean age of the subjects was 55±14.1 years. Most of the subjects were in the 50-59-year age group. The mean hypertension duration of the subjects was 9.56±8.3 years. The male-female ratio was 1:1.2. More of the subjects, 126(53.4%), had never visited the dentist before than the 110(46.6%) who had visited. Of those who had visited before, 55(50%) visited within the last 2 to 5 years. The commonest procedure in the last visit was for scaling and polishing 54(22.9%), followed by filling of cavities 33(14%) and tooth extraction 35(14.8%).The bivariate assessment of the utilisation of the dental clinic (Have you visited the dental clinic before?) showed that the educational status of the subjects was the only significant factor (p=0.001).Marital status and educational status were the factors associated with utilisation of dental services, independent of other factors, with p= 0.03, odds ratio 0.51 and p= 0.001, odds ratio 0.53, respectively.Conclusion: This study emphasizes that socioeconomic factors are strong determinants of dental service utilisation. Higher educational status and being married, which have been well-documented to positively influence health-seeking behaviour, were also found to be strong determinants of dental services utilisation among hypertensives. It is therefore important that policies that make mass education affordable and available be put in place to enhance dental service utilisation and overall health-seeking behaviour of the entire population.