Factors associated with the municipal provision of dental prostheses in the Brazilian Unified Health System.

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate factors associated with the municipal provision of dental prostheses via the Brazilian Unified Health System (UHS). This cross-sectional study covered 5,565 Brazilian municipalities, utilizing data from a secondary database. The dependent variable was the municipal provision of dental prostheses. The independent variables were demographic and socioeconomic characteristics (regions of Brazil, number of residents in the municipality, health budget, gross domestic product [GDP] per capita, municipal human development index [MHDI], and Gini coefficient) and municipal structure of primary oral care (family health team [FHT] coverage, oral health team [OHT] coverage, OHT/FHT proportion) and secondary oral care (presence of dental specialties center [DSC], types of DSC, municipality employing at least one dentist specialized in dental prosthetics [DSDP], presence of regional dental prosthesis laboratory [RDPL]). Poisson regression with robust variance (p ≤ 0.05) was used for multivariate analysis. A total of 57% of Brazilian municipalities provided dental prostheses via the UHS. Municipalities in the Northeast region were 16% (PR = 1.16; 95%CI: 1.12-1.20) more likely to provide dental prosthetics via the UHS. Municipalities with a low GDP per capita (PR = 1.10; 95%CI: 1.08-1.11), the presence of a DSC (PR = 1.17; 95% CI: 1.15-1.19), the presence of a type III DSC [containing 7 or more dental offices] (PR = 1.06; 95%CI: 1.03-1.10), an employed DSDP (PR = 1.15; 95%CI: 1.12-1.18) and an RDPL (PR = 1.25; 95%CI: 1.23-1.27) were more likely to provide dental prostheses via the UHS. Demographic and socioeconomic factors and the available primary and secondary oral care structure influenced the municipal provision of dental prostheses via the UHS.