Determinants of dental insurance status for U.S. military families.

This study explores what factors influence whether active duty U.S. military personnel enroll their families in Department of Defense (DoD) or non-DoD dental insurance plans. The data come from a 26-site, cross-sectional survey of U.S. service members conducted from April 1994 to January 1995. A prestratified, randomly selected target sample of 15,915 service members yielded 12,950 respondents (81% response rate); 7,243 of these had insurance-eligible families. Age, gender, ethnicity, education, rank, marital status, branch of service, number of children, number of years of military service, and insurance status of respondents were collected on self-administered questionnaires. We performed stepwise, backward, logistic regression analysis to determine which factors influence a military family's dental insurance status. Results show that enrollment in DoD insurance is influenced by every demographic factor collected; enrollment in non-DoD insurance is influenced by fewer factors. The decision by U.S. service members to enroll their families in dental insurance plans is subject to many and complex influences.