IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i9p4988-d797634.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Oral Health Service Access in Racial/Ethnic Minority Neighborhoods: A Geospatial Analysis in Washington, DC, USA

Author

Listed:
  • Meirong Liu

    (School of Social Work, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA)

  • Dennis Kao

    (School of Social Work, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada)

  • Xinbin Gu

    (College of Dentistry, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA)

  • Whittni Holland

    (School of Social Work, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA)

  • Gail Cherry-Peppers

    (College of Dentistry, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA)

Abstract

Previous studies on individual-level variables have improved our knowledge base of oral health service use. However, environmental or contextual variables are also important in understanding oral health disparities in racial and ethnic neighborhoods. Based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework, this study examines the geographic availability of oral health providers in Washing-ton DC, U.S.A. Census tract-level data were drawn from the American Community Survey, joined with tract-level shapefiles, and overlaid with the geographic location of dental services throughout the city. Visual maps, descriptive statistics, and spatial lag regression models showed that census tracts with higher concentrations of African Americans were significantly farther from their nearest oral health providers (r = 0.19, p < 0.001), after controlling for neighborhood poverty rate, median age, and gender. Such findings confirm that in urban areas with highly di-verse populations such as Washington DC, racial disparities in oral health care access are signifi-cant. The study highlights that identifying neighborhoods with limited oral health care providers should be a priority in diminishing racial disparities in oral health service access. Improving access to racial/ethnic minority communities, especially African American neighborhoods, will require changes in health policies and programs, workforce development, resource allocation, community outreach, and educational programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Meirong Liu & Dennis Kao & Xinbin Gu & Whittni Holland & Gail Cherry-Peppers, 2022. "Oral Health Service Access in Racial/Ethnic Minority Neighborhoods: A Geospatial Analysis in Washington, DC, USA," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:4988-:d:797634
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/4988/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/4988/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2017.303760_6 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Dominique H. Como & Leah I. Stein Duker & José C. Polido & Sharon A. Cermak, 2019. "The Persistence of Oral Health Disparities for African American Children: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-16, February.
    3. Hoffman, L.M. & Rollins, L. & Akintobi, T.H. & Erwin, K. & Hernandez, N. & Lewis, K. & Miller, A., 2017. "Oral health intervention for low-income African American Men in Atlanta, Georgia," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107, pages 104-110.
    4. Jones, E. & Shi, L. & Hayashi, A.S. & Sharma, R. & Daly, C. & Ngo-Metzger, Q., 2013. "Access to oral health care: The role of Federally Qualified Health Centers in addressing disparities and expanding access," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(3), pages 488-493.
    5. Chi, D.L. & Carpiano, R.M., 2013. "Neighborhood social capital, neighborhood attachment, and dental care use for Los Angeles family and neighborhood survey adults," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(4), pages 88-95.
    6. Hyunwoo Yoon & Yuri Jang & Kwangyul Choi & Hyun Kim, 2018. "Preventive Dental Care Utilization in Asian Americans in Austin, Texas: Does Neighborhood Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-12, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ricardo Dias De Castro & Marianne De Lucena Rangel & Marcos André Azevedo Da Silva & Brunna Thaís Lucwu De Lucena & Alessandro Leite Cavalcanti & Paulo Rogério Ferreti Bonan & Julyana De Araújo Olivei, 2016. "Accessibility to Specialized Public Oral Health Services from the Perspective of Brazilian Users," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-10, October.
    2. Tyrone C. Cheng & Celia C. Lo, 2024. "Factors Associated with Insured Children’s Use of Physician Visits, Dentist Visits, Hospital Care, and Prescribed Medications in the United States: An Application of Behavioral Model of Health-Service," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(4), pages 1-11, March.
    3. Cornelia Melinda Adi Santoso & Taufan Bramantoro & Minh Chau Nguyen & Zsuzsa Bagoly & Attila Nagy, 2020. "Factors Affecting Dental Service Utilisation in Indonesia: A Population-Based Multilevel Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-11, July.
    4. Emmett Henderson & Preeti Dalawari & Jennifer Fitzgerald & Leslie Hinyard, 2018. "Association of Oral Health Literacy and Dental Visitation in an Inner-City Emergency Department Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-10, August.
    5. Mohammad Reza Mohammadi & Zahra Hooshyari & Balal Ezanloo & Alia Shakiba & Seyed-Ali Mostafavi & Maryam Salmanian & Ameneh Ahmadi & Seyyed Salman Alavi & Ali Khaleghi & Hadi Zarafshan, 2020. "Application of Different Techniques of Factor Analysis to Develop Neighborhood Social Capital Rating Scale," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(2), pages 375-391, July.
    6. Winston Tseng & Elizabeth Pleasants & Susan L. Ivey & Karen Sokal-Gutierrez & Jayanth Kumar & Kristin S. Hoeft & Alice M. Horowitz & Francisco Ramos-Gomez & Miku Sodhi & Jessica Liu & Linda Neuhauser, 2020. "Barriers and Facilitators to Promoting Oral Health Literacy and Patient Communication among Dental Providers in California," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Ybarra, Marci & Ha, Yoonsook & Chang, Jina, 2017. "Health insurance coverage and routine health care use among children by family immigration status," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 97-106.
    8. Dominique H. Como & Lucía I. Floríndez-Cox & Leah I. Stein Duker & Sharon A. Cermak, 2022. "Oral Health Barriers for African American Caregivers of Autistic Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Rana Dahlan & Babak Bohlouli & Humam Saltaji & Ida Kornerup & Bukola Salami & Maryam Amin, 2022. "Immigrant Parents’ Perceived Social Support and Their Children’s Oral Health Behaviors and Caries Experience," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-12, July.
    10. Rhonda C. Holliday & Romell Phillips & Tabia Henry Akintobi, 2020. "A Community-Based Participatory Approach to the Development and Implementation of an HIV Health Behavior Intervention: Lessons Learned in Navigating Research and Practice Systems from Project HAPPY," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Carolina Marques Borges & Meghna Krishnamurthy, 2022. "Are We Getting Any Better? A Critical Analysis of Selected Healthy People 2020 Oral Health Indicators in 1999–2004 and 2013–2016, USA," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-15, April.
    12. Eman S. Almabadi & Adrian Bauman & Rahena Akhter & Jessica Gugusheff & Joseph Van Buskirk & Michelle Sankey & Janet E. Palmer & David J. Kavanagh & Gregory J. Seymour & Mary P. Cullinan & Joerg Eberha, 2021. "The Effect of a Personalized Oral Health Education Program on Periodontal Health in an At-Risk Population: A Randomized Controlled Trial," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-13, January.
    13. Lucía I. Floríndez & Daniella C. Floríndez & Francesca M. Floríndez & Dominique H. Como & Elizabeth Pyatak & Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati & Jose C. Polido & Sharon A. Cermak, 2019. "Oral Care Experiences of Latino Parents/Caregivers with Children with Autism and with Typically Developing Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-14, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:4988-:d:797634. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.