Studies from Newcastle University in the Area of Managed Care Described (Dental Attendances To General Medical Practitioners In Wales: a 44 Year-analysis): Managed Care

2023 JUN 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Managed Care. According to news reporting originating in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “One-third of the UK population is composed of problem-oriented dental attenders, seeking dental care only when they have acute dental pain or problems. Patients seek urgent dental care from a range of health care professionals, including general medical practitioners.”

Funders for this research include Department of Health - England, UK Department of Health and Social Care.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Newcastle University, “This study aimed to identify trends in dental attendance at Welsh medical practices over a 44-y period, specifically in relation to dental policy change and factors associated with repeat attendance. A retrospective observational study was completed via the nationwide Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank of visits to general medical practice in Wales. Read codes associated with dental diagnoses were extracted for patients attending their general medical practitioner between 1974 and 2017. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and univariate and multivariable logistic regression. Over the 44-y period, there were 439,361 dental Read codes, accounting for 288,147 patient attendances. The overall attendance rate was 2.60 attendances per 1,000 patient-years (95% CI, 2.59 to 2.61). The attendance rate was negligible through 1987 but increased sharply to 5.0 per 1,000 patient-years in 2006 (95% CI, 4.94 to 5.09) before almost halving to 2.6 per 1,000 in 2017 (95% CI, 2.53 to 2.63) to a pattern that coincided with changes to National Health Service policies. Overall 26,312 patients were repeat attenders and were associated with living in an area classified as urban and deprived (odds ratio [OR], 1.22; 95% CI, 1.19 to 1.25; P< 0.0001) or rural (OR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.83 to 0.85; P< 0.0001). Repeat attendance was associated with greater odds of having received an antibiotic prescription (OR, 2.53; 95% CI, 2.50 to 2.56; P< 0.0001) but lower odds of having been referred to another service (OR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.70 to 0.81; P< 0.0001). Welsh patients’ reliance on medical care for dental problems was influenced by social deprivation and health policy. This indicates that future interventions to discourage dental attendance at medical practitioners should be targeted at those in the most deprived urban areas or rural areas.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “In addition, health policy may influence attendance rates positively and negatively and should be considered in the future when decisions related to policy change are made.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Dental Attendances To General Medical Practitioners In Wales: a 44 Year-analysis. Journal of Dental Research, 2022;101(4):407-413. Journal of Dental Research can be contacted at: Sage Publications Inc, 2455 Teller Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, USA.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting C. C. Currie, Newcastle University, School of Dental Sciences, Framlington Pl, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, Tyne & Wear, United Kingdom. Additional authors for this research include S. J. Stone, J. Durham, P. Brocklehurst, G. Slade and M. S. Pearce.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1177/00220345211044108. 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.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)