Schwarz E, Kronborg D
National Board of Health, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 1988 Dec;16(6):336-40. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1988.tb00577.x.
Utilization of dental services among three groups of young adults was studied longitudinally. Each year from age 16 to age 19, participants were defined as users or non-users of alternative dental programs. Dental programs were taking place with public dental health service clinics (n = 386), with private dental practitioners, free of charge (n = 161), and with private dental practitioners, partially reimbursed by health insurance (n = 261). The paper analyzes whether the pattern of utilization of the last two groups might be described by a Markovian model defining use or non-use of dental care each of 3 years as two mutually exclusive Markovian states. Contingency table analysis of the relationships of the utilization status and sex, social group, and delivery program showed that the utilization pattern could not be described by a Markovian model. Conversely, strong relationships between 1-yr user status and 3-yr user status was found. Implications in relation to the prevailing dental health care policy emphasizing regular dental care and continuity between child dental health care and young adult dental programs are discussed.
对三组年轻人的牙科服务利用情况进行了纵向研究。从16岁到19岁，每年将参与者定义为替代牙科项目的使用者或非使用者。牙科项目分别在公立牙科保健服务诊所（n = 386）、由私人牙医提供（免费，n = 161）以及由私人牙医提供（部分由健康保险报销，n = 261）的场所开展。本文分析了后两组的利用模式是否可以用一个马尔可夫模型来描述，该模型将每3年使用或不使用牙科护理定义为两个相互排斥的马尔可夫状态。对利用状况与性别、社会群体和提供项目之间关系的列联表分析表明，利用模式无法用马尔可夫模型来描述。相反，发现1年使用者状态和3年使用者状态之间存在密切关系。讨论了与当前强调定期牙科护理以及儿童牙科保健与年轻人牙科项目之间连续性的牙科保健政策的相关性。
