Article Text
Abstract
Objective To examine the oral health conditions and oral health behaviour of high-cost patients and evaluate oral health measures as predictors of future high-cost patients.
Design A retrospective, population-based cohort study using administrative healthcare records.
Setting The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) medical check-up database (a.k.a. NHIS—national health screening cohort database) in South Korea.
Participants 131 549 individuals who received biennial health check-ups including dental check-ups in 2011 or 2012, aged 49–88.
Primary outcome measures Current and subsequent year high-cost patient status.
Results High-cost patients, on average, incur higher dental costs, suffer more from periodontal disease, brush their teeth less and use secondary oral hygiene products less. Some of the self-reported oral health behaviours and oral symptom variables show statistically significant associations with subsequent year high-cost patient indicators, even after adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, medical conditions, and prior healthcare cost and utilisation.
Conclusions We demonstrate that oral health measures are associated with an increased risk of becoming a high-cost patient.
- high-cost patients
- oral health
- oral health behaviour
- self-reported oral symptoms
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Footnotes
Contributors YJK conceptualised and designed the study, collected and analysed the data, and wrote the manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval The Seoul National University Institutional Review Board.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available.