Research Type: Service Use

This project looking at cohorts of cancer patients diagnosed between 2011-2015 compiled in a dataset by the NICR, and will be linked to the 2011 Census and therefore meets the longitudinal criterion required for a NILS project. The NILS and NICR have the full complement of data required to answer the research question in the census year 2011. The quality of staging, comorbidity, and treatment information in NICR has increased to sufficient levels in the last 10 years. From the NILS dataset, we require the health information on frailty (e.g. Q22, 2011 Census) and comorbidity (Q23, 2011 Census) only available in 2011.

Those aged 18 and under are in Northern Ireland entitled to have their oral care funded by the health service. This care is typically provided by general dental practitioners – independent contractors – who operate on a for-profit basis. While equal access to funding exists, because care is delivered by independent contractors there is no guarantee of equal access to care in the presence of equal need. Indeed, as evidenced by wide variations in registration rates across Northern Ireland, and wide variations in registration rates both linked to deprivation, there is clear evidence of unequal access relative to need. An examination of registration alone however, provides a very incomplete picture of access to services or differences in the intensity or type of services provided. The primary objective of the proposed project is to analyse a dataset formed by linkage of the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study (NILS) and the reimbursement of general dentist practitioner data collected by the Central Services Agency (CSA).

This study will link data from the 2001 Census, the General Registrar’s Office and the Central Service Agency relating to NHS dental service use to explore measures of oral health status and variations in service use among children aged 10. It will compare measures of oral health based on decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) with those based on the state of first permanent molar teeth in children using CSA data. It will describe differences by social class in dental health and in use of dental services; it will explain variations in service use within the context of a constrained utility maximising model of behaviour. Health and service use will be related to parental socio-economic and demographic characteristics, as well as access to dental services and area characteristics.