Satisfaction with dental care among 35 to 44 year-old university employees in Lithuania
| Author | Affiliation |
|---|---|
Vehkalahti, Miira M. | Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland |
Murtomaa, Heikki | Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland |
| Date |
|---|
2012-11-15 |
Aim: To assess satisfaction with dental care and factors related to it among middle-aged Lithuanian university employees. Methods: A questionnaire survey of 35-44 year old employees (n=862; 76% female) of four Universities in Lithuania, in March- June 2005. Kaunas Regional Committee of Ethics for Biomedical Research (Lithuania) granted its permission to conduct the study. Questions covered satisfaction with dental care, reason for and time since the most recent dental visit, practice type, dentistsʼ characteristics and usual reason for dental attendance. A total of 24 statements on satisfaction describing organisational, personal and professional dimensions were assessed on a 5-point scale from entirely agree to entirely disagree, later scored from 5 to 1 and summed. Gender, marital status, education and income served as background information. Statistical evaluation was by Anova and Chi-square test. Results: A total of 553 (64%) subjects responded, 19 were excluded, because they didnʼt give their age. 439 (79%) were women, 397 (72%) were married/cohabiting, 451 (82%) had a university degree, and 214 (39%) reported medium household income, 210 (38%) being below and 124 (23%) above that. Of all, 317 (57%) entirely agreed with satisfaction statements in all 3 dimensions: more of those with university education (59% vs. 50%, p<0.001) and with income above average (65% vs. 51%, p=0.025). The average sum score of overall satisfaction was 99.5 (SD=12.6, median=100, range 59-120). Greater satisfaction was reported from those visiting private practice (101.0 vs. 94.4, p<0.001) or the same dentist longer than 2 years (101.6 vs. 96.5, p<0.001), those who had their most recent dental visit within 12 months (100.3 vs. 97.3, p=0.024), and preventive check-up as their usual reason for their dental visit (102.2 vs. 96.6, p<0.001) as compared with their counterparts. Conclusions: Going for preventive check-ups and visiting the
same dentist in the private sector recently seemed to result in greater satisfaction with dental care among middle-aged Lithuanian university employees.