Effect of early preventive dental care on dental treatment, expenditures, and oral health among Medicaid enrolled children

Dental decay is the most prevalent chronic disease of childhood and dental care is the number one unmet healthcare need. Professional organizations are aggressively promoting a preventive dental visit by age one, but there is not strong evidence on effectiveness of early preventive dental care. The three studies in this dissertation examine the effects of the timing of a first preventive visit. The first two studies relied on data from NC Medicaid claims (1999 - 2006) and an oral health surveillance dataset to compare dental treatment, expenditures and disease status of children who had an early preventive dental visit to children who had preventive visits at older ages. The third study used a simulation model to examine the effects of alternative Medicaid policy options for the timing of the first preventive visit. We found that children who had a preventive visit by age 18 months had fewer treatments and lower expenditures than children who had a first preventive visit at age 25-36 months, but children who had a first preventive visit at age 49-60 months had less treatment than children with a visit by age 18 months. Our results indicated that children who had early preventive visits were at higher risk for disease at a very young age than children who had visits at older ages; however, they had no difference in their disease status at age five years. Further, when we expanded the definition of a preventive visit to include children who had worse oral health, children with an early preventive visit had fewer treatments and lower expenditures than children who had preventive visits at older ages. Taken together, these findings indicate that early preventive visits may be effective among children at an elevated risk for disease. The third study also found that targeting children at high risk for the age one visit was the optimal policy. These findings support the policy to promote early visits among children at higher risk for disease and allow other children to delay first visit until age three years, particularly when the supply of dentists is limited

Effects of Early Dental Office Visits on Dental Caries Experience

Objectives. We determined the association between timing of a first dentist office visit before age 5 years and dental disease in kindergarten. Methods. We used North Carolina Medicaid claims (1999–2006) linked to state oral health surveillance data to compare caries experience for kindergarten students (2005–2006) who had a visit before age 60 months (n = 11 394) to derive overall exposure effects from a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model. We repeated the analysis separately for children who had preventive and tertiary visits. Results. Children who had a visit at age 37 to 48 and 49 to 60 months had significantly less disease than children with a visit by age 24 months (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.81, 0.95; IRR = 0.75; 95% CI = 0.69, 0.82, respectively). Disease status did not differ between children who had a tertiary visit by age 24 months and other children. Conclusions. Medicaid-enrolled children in our study followed an urgent care type of utilization, and access to dental care was limited. Children at high risk for dental disease should be given priority for a preventive dental visit before age 3 years

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Healthcare Expenditures for Publicly Insured Children with Chronic Health Conditions

This study estimated the prevalence of maternal depressive symptoms and tested associations between maternal depressive symptoms and healthcare utilization and expenditures among United States publicly insured children with chronic health conditions (CCHC). A total of 6,060 publicly insured CCHC from the 2004–2009 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys were analyzed using negative binomial models to compare healthcare utilization for CCHC of mothers with and without depressive symptoms. Annual healthcare expenditures for both groups were compared using a two-part model with a logistic regression and generalized linear model. The prevalence of depressive symptoms among mothers with CCHC was 19 %. There were no differences in annual healthcare utilization for CCHC of mothers with and without depressive symptoms. Maternal depressive symptoms were associated with greater odds of ED expenditures [odds ratio (OR) 1.26; 95 % CI 1.03–1.54] and lesser odds of dental expenditures (OR 0.81; 95 % CI 0.66–0.98) and total expenditures (OR 0.71; 95 % CI 0.51–0.98). Children of symptomatic mothers had lower predicted outpatient expenditures and higher predicted expenditures for total health, prescription medications, dental care; and office based, inpatient and ED visits. Mothers with CCHC were more likely to report depressive symptoms than were mothers with children without chronic health conditions. There were few differences in annual healthcare utilization and expenditures between CCHC of mothers with and without depressive symptoms. However, having a mother with depressive symptoms was associated with higher ED expenditures and higher predicted healthcare expenditures in a population of children who comprise over three-fourths of the top decile of Medicaid spending

Accuracy of record linkage software in merging dental administrative data sets: Accuracy of record linkage software

To determine the accuracy of record matching using “Link King” software that uses an ordinal score for the certainty that linked records are valid matches

Effect of Early Preventive Dental Visits on Subsequent Dental Treatment and Expenditures

Professional organizations recommend a preventive dental visit by one year of age. This study compared dental treatment and expenditures for Medicaid children who have a preventive visit before age 18-months to those who have a visit at age 18-42 months

Pediatricians’ assessments of caries risk and need for a dental evaluation in preschool aged children

Abstract Background Risk-based prioritization of dental referrals during well-child visits might improve dental access for infants and toddlers. This study identifies pediatrician-assessed risk factors for early childhood caries (ECC) and their association with the need for a dentist’s evaluation. Methods A priority oral health risk assessment and referral tool (PORRT) for children < 36 months was developed collaboratively by physicians and dentists and used by 10 pediatricians during well-child visits. PORRT documented behavioral, clinical, and child health risks for ECC. Pediatricians also assessed overall ECC risk on an 11-point scale and determined the need for a dental evaluation. Logistic regression models calculated the odds for evaluation need for each risk factor and according to a 3-level risk classification. Results In total 1,288 PORRT forms were completed; 6.8% of children were identified as needing a dentist evaluation. Behavioral risk factors were prevalent but not strong predictors of the need for an evaluation. The child’s overall caries risk was the strongest predictor of the need for an evaluation. Cavitated (OR = 17.5; 95% CI = 8.08, 37.97) and non-cavitated (OR = 6.9; 95% CI = 4.47, 10.82) lesions were the strongest predictors when the caries risk scale was excluded from the analysis. Few patients (6.3%) were classified as high risk, but their probability of needing an evaluation was only 0.36. Conclusions Low referral rates for children with disease and prior to disease onset but at elevated risk, indicate interventions are needed to help improve the dental referral rates of physicians

Effects of Early Dental Office Visits on Dental Caries Experience

Objectives. We determined the association between timing of a first dentist office visit before age 5 years and dental disease in kindergarten. Methods. We used North Carolina Medicaid claims (1999–2006) linked to state oral health surveillance data to compare caries experience for kindergarten students (2005–2006) who had a visit before age 60 months (n = 11 394) to derive overall exposure effects from a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model. We repeated the analysis separately for children who had preventive and tertiary visits. Results. Children who had a visit at age 37 to 48 and 49 to 60 months had significantly less disease than children with a visit by age 24 months (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.81, 0.95; IRR = 0.75; 95% CI = 0.69, 0.82, respectively). Disease status did not differ between children who had a tertiary visit by age 24 months and other children. Conclusions. Medicaid-enrolled children in our study followed an urgent care type of utilization, and access to dental care was limited. Children at high risk for dental disease should be given priority for a preventive dental visit before age 3 years

Extreme drought impacts have been underestimated in grasslands and shrublands globally.

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of short-term (~1 y) drought events-the most common duration of drought-globally. Yet the impact of this intensification of drought on ecosystem functioning remains poorly resolved. This is due in part to the widely disparate approaches ecologists have employed to study drought, variation in the severity and duration of drought studied, and differences among ecosystems in vegetation, edaphic and climatic attributes that can mediate drought impacts. To overcome these problems and better identify the factors that modulate drought responses, we used a coordinated distributed experiment to quantify the impact of short-term drought on grassland and shrubland ecosystems. With a standardized approach, we imposed ~a single year of drought at 100 sites on six continents. Here we show that loss of a foundational ecosystem function-aboveground net primary production (ANPP)-was 60% greater at sites that experienced statistically extreme drought (1-in-100-y event) vs. those sites where drought was nominal (historically more common) in magnitude (35% vs. 21%, respectively). This reduction in a key carbon cycle process with a single year of extreme drought greatly exceeds previously reported losses for grasslands and shrublands. Our global experiment also revealed high variability in drought response but that relative reductions in ANPP were greater in drier ecosystems and those with fewer plant species. Overall, our results demonstrate with unprecedented rigor that the global impacts of projected increases in drought severity have been significantly underestimated and that drier and less diverse sites are likely to be most vulnerable to extreme drought

Extreme drought impacts have been underestimated in grasslands and shrublands globally.

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of short-term (~1 y) drought events-the most common duration of drought-globally. Yet the impact of this intensification of drought on ecosystem functioning remains poorly resolved. This is due in part to the widely disparate approaches ecologists have employed to study drought, variation in the severity and duration of drought studied, and differences among ecosystems in vegetation, edaphic and climatic attributes that can mediate drought impacts. To overcome these problems and better identify the factors that modulate drought responses, we used a coordinated distributed experiment to quantify the impact of short-term drought on grassland and shrubland ecosystems. With a standardized approach, we imposed ~a single year of drought at 100 sites on six continents. Here we show that loss of a foundational ecosystem function-aboveground net primary production (ANPP)-was 60% greater at sites that experienced statistically extreme drought (1-in-100-y event) vs. those sites where drought was nominal (historically more common) in magnitude (35% vs. 21%, respectively). This reduction in a key carbon cycle process with a single year of extreme drought greatly exceeds previously reported losses for grasslands and shrublands. Our global experiment also revealed high variability in drought response but that relative reductions in ANPP were greater in drier ecosystems and those with fewer plant species. Overall, our results demonstrate with unprecedented rigor that the global impacts of projected increases in drought severity have been significantly underestimated and that drier and less diverse sites are likely to be most vulnerable to extreme drought