Unmet dental care needs among Korean adults by employment type: focusing on sex differences

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the association between employment type and unmet dental care needs among Korean adults with a particular focus on sex differences.Methods: Data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016-2023) were analyzed.After excluding patients with missing values, 35,247 adults aged 19 years or older were included in the analyses.The analyses were stratified according to sex.Employment type was categorized as regular or non-regular and unmet dental care need was used as the dependent variable.The covariates included age, educational level, household income, marital status, high-risk drinking, smoking, tooth brushing frequency, and chronic disease.Weighted complex sample frequency, cross-tabulation, and logistic regression analyses were performed.The level of statistical significance was set at P<0.05.Results: Non-regular workers exhibited a higher prevalence of unmet dental care needs than regular workers, in both sexes.In the unadjusted model, non-regular employment was significantly associated with unmet dental care needs in both men (odds ratio [OR]=1.379,95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.226-1.550,P<0.001) and women (OR=1.140,95% CI: 1.025-1.269,P=0.016).After adjustment, the association remained significant only among men (OR=1.323,95% CI: 1.126-1.554,P<0.001), whereas it was not significant among women.Conclusions: Employment type was associated with unmet dental care needs among Korean adults, and this association differed by sex.These findings suggest that sex-specific approaches are needed when developing policies to reduce unmet dental care needs among non-regular workers.