IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/gjhsjl/v17y2025i2p10-18.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changes in Dental Care Utilization and Barriers among Mexican Americans: Evidence from NHANES III and 2011-2020

Author

Listed:
  • Chengming Han
  • Nan Zhou

Abstract

OBJECTIVE- This study examines trends and factors influencing dental care utilization among Mexican Americans from 1988 to 2020. METHODS- Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III and 2011-2020 were analyzed using logistic regression to assess the impact of immigrant status and socioeconomic status on dental visits among Mexican Americans. Slope tests were applied to examine the different patterns across cohorts. RESULTS- Compared to NHANES III, the 2011-2020 waves showed a decrease in the proportion of irregular dentist visits (from 0.67 to 0.54) and an increase in foreign-born status (0.46 to 0.57) and college education (0.19 to 0.33). The 2011-2020 sample was also older than that of NHANES III. Regression analyses revealed that speaking Spanish was associated with higher odds of irregular dentist visits, while higher education, family income, and health insurance were associated with lower odds of irregular dentist visits. The protective effect of foreign-born status on dental care utilization has increased over time, while the protective effects of college education and higher family income have diminished. POLICY IMPLICATIONS- Expanding language services and increasing health insurance coverage are critical to addressing barriers to dental care for Mexican Americans.

Suggested Citation

  • Chengming Han & Nan Zhou, 2025. "Changes in Dental Care Utilization and Barriers among Mexican Americans: Evidence from NHANES III and 2011-2020," Global Journal of Health Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 17(2), pages 10-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:gjhsjl:v:17:y:2025:i:2:p:10-18
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/gjhs/article/download/0/0/51323/55991
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/gjhs/article/view/0/51323
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ibn:gjhsjl:v:17:y:2025:i:2:p:10-18. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    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.