TY - JOUR
AU - Aminu, Abodunrin Q.
AU - McMahon, Alex D.
AU - Clark, Claire
AU - Sherriff, Andrea
AU - Buchanan, Caroline
AU - Watling, Chris
AU - Mahmoud, Ahmed
AU - Culshaw, Shauna
AU - MacKay, William
AU - Gorman, Megan
AU - Braid, Raymond
AU - Edwards, Maura
AU - Conway, David I.
PY - 2023
DA - January
TI - Inequalities in access to NHS primary care dental services in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic
JO - British Dental Journal 
AB - Introduction: This study aimed to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access and inequalities in primary care dental services among children and adults in Scotland.  Methods: Access was measured as any NHS Scotland primary care dental contacts derived from administrative data from January 2019 to May 2022, linked to the area-based Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) for children and adults, and related to population denominator estimates from National Record Scotland. Inequalities for pre-pandemic (January 2019 – January 2020) and recent (December 2021 – February 2022 and March 2022 – May 2022) periods for both children and adults were calculated and compared using the slope index of inequality (SII) and relative index of inequality (RII).  Results: Following the first lockdown (March 2020) there was a dramatic fall to near zero dental contacts, followed by a slow recovery to 64.8% of pre-pandemic levels by May 2022. There was initial widening of relative inequalities in dental contacts in early 2022, which, more recently, had begun to return to pre-pandemic levels. Conclusion: COVID-19 had a major impact on access to NHS primary dental care, and while inequalities in access are apparent as services recover from lockdown, these inequalities are not a new phenomenon.
PB - Springer Nature
UR - https://uws.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/1851f648-b26c-4a75-b234-cc51eb327b8a
KW - Primary care
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER