Correlates of Past Year Dental Health Visits Among Black Men: From the Black Men's Health Study of Indiana

Stapleton, Shauna S. M.P.H., Purdue University, May 2013. Correlates of Past Year Dental Health Visits Among Black Men: Findings from the Black Men’s Health Study of Indiana. Major Professor: Haslyn Hunte. Objective: This study aimed to examine correlates of past year dental health visits among Black Men of Indiana. Methods: A 2011 health needs assessment was taken from a convenience sample of 1,444 Black men from 12 Indiana counties. Participants represented a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Utilizing logistic regression analysis, compensating for clustering by county, predisposing and enabling factors were explored to determine their correlation to dental health visits within the previous year. Predisposing factors included age, sex, marital status, educational level, and employment status. Enabling factors included household income level, health insurance, place of sick care, smoking status, self-­‐rated health, poor mental health days, social support, and fruit and vegetable servings per day. Results: Overall, 42% of the men surveyed had visited the dentist during the previous year. Preliminary analysis of the full model showed that those who were married (Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.34, p<0.01), had a higher household income (OR = 1.83, p<0.05), possessed health insurance (OR=1.75, p<0.001), had a usual place of sick care (OR = 1.42, p<0.05), and consumed fruit everyday (OR=1.81, p<0.05) were significantly more likely to visit the dentist in the previous year. Rarely or never