New Data from University of Texas Health Science Center Houston Illuminate Findings in Insurance (Dental Insurance Status Among Formerly Incarcerated Older Adults): Insurance

2026 APR 08 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Insurance is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating in Houston, Texas, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Formerly incarcerated individuals have poorer oral health and less frequent dental care utilization than the general population. However, prior work has overlooked the relationship between prior incarceration and disparities in dental insurance coverage.”

Financial supporters for this research include NIH National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF).

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, “Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (n = 11,638), findings from multiple logistic regression analyses demonstrate that formerly incarcerated older adults are significantly less likely to have dental insurance coverage (odds ratio [OR] = 0.745, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.608, 0.912). After accounting for the income-to-poverty ratio, this association was no longer statistically significant. Analyses using the Karlson-Holm-Breen method demonstrated that approximately 45% of the association between prior incarceration and dental insurance is explained by the income-to-poverty ratio.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “These findings suggest the need for policies to expand affordable dental coverage for formerly incarcerated older adults.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Dental Insurance Status Among Formerly Incarcerated Older Adults. Family & Community Health, 2026;49(2):116-121. Family & Community Health can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA. (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins - www.lww.com; Family & Community Health - http://journals.lww.com/familyandcommunityhealth/pages/default.aspx)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Alexander Testa, University of Texas Health Science Center, Dept. of Management Policy and Community Health, 1200 Pressler St, Houston, TX 77030, United States. Additional authors for this research include Rafael Samper-Ternent, Dylan B. Jackson, Kyle T. Ganson, Vahed Maroufy, Jason M. Nagata and Ana C. Neumann.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1097/FCH.0000000000000451. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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