Socioeconomic disparities in dental health perception: USA Trends

Objective: One of the United States (US) health goals for the year 2010 is to eliminate health disparities. In order to evaluate progress toward reaching this goal in oral health, we evaluated the trends in dental health perception by socioeconomic position (SEP) from 1972 to 2001. Methods: Self-ratings of dental health of 25-74 years old dentate adults were obtained from three US national surveys (NHANES I, III and 1999-2002). Changes in the absolute and relative differences of fair/poor dental health between high- and low-SEP adults from 1972 to 2001 were calculated. Results: The prevalence of high-SEP dentate adults reporting a fair or poor dental health decreased from 37.7% in 1972 [95% Confidence Interval (CI)=32.6-43.1] to 22.7% in 2001 (95%CI=20.0-25.5). The prevalence of low-SEP dentate adults reporting a fair or poor oral health remained stable; it was 63.4% in 1972 (95%CI=58.1-68.3) and 60.3% in 2001 (95%CI=57.0-63.4). The prevalence difference of fair/poor dental health perception between low and high SEP increased 12 percentage points between 1972 and 2001 (p-value=0.002), and the prevalence ratio increased 53% in the same period (p-value<0.001). Conclusions: Socioeconomic disparities in dental health perception increased between 1972 and 2001, both in absolute and relative terms.