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Dental Workforce Availability And Dental Services Utilization In Appalachia: A Geospatial Analysis, Xue Feng, Usha Sambamoorthi, R. Constance Wiener
Dental Workforce Availability And Dental Services Utilization In Appalachia: A Geospatial Analysis, Xue Feng, Usha Sambamoorthi, R. Constance Wiener
Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Objectives—There is considerable variation in dental services utilization across Appalachian counties, and a plausible explanation is that individuals in some geographical areas do not utilize dental care due to dental workforce shortage. We conducted an ecological study on dental workforce availability and dental services utilization in Appalachia. Methods—We derived county-level (n = 364) data on demographic, socio-economic characteristics and dental services utilization in Appalachia from the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) using person-level data. We obtained county-level dental workforce availability and physician-to-population ratio estimates from Area Health Resource File, and linked them to the county-level BRFSS data. The …