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ABSTRACT
Dental visits is vital to improve and maintain oral health, quality of life and general well-being. A better understanding of barriers related to use of dental health services by older adults is needed to tackle age related oral health problems among our geriatric population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the rate of dental attendance, time of last visits, presenting complains and barriers to dental clinic attendance among the elderly in University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) and Central Hospital Benin city. A descriptive survey was used, where the sample was drawn from patients visiting the outpatient clinics of central hospital and UBTH. All geriatric patients who visited the two clinics within the period of the study. The data was analyzed and reported was collected from 401 elderly participants through a pretested structured questionnaire, consisting of closed ended and open-ended questions. Descriptive analysis and Chi-square test were performed and significance was taken as P <0.05. The elderly were 812(28%) patients out of a total of 1450(72%) patients that visited both hospitals during the study period. There were more females [212(52.9%)] than males [189(47.1%)] with a ratio of 1.2:1. The Mean Age of the study respondents was 70.4 ± 5.7 years; and the frequencies of the age categorizations was 65-69 [232(57.9%)]; 70-74 [67(16.7%)]; 75-79[61(15.2%)] and ≥ 80[41(10.2%)]. A great majority of the study respondents were not living alone as 348(86.8%) were married while 53(13.2%) were widowed. Majority of them were Christians (95.5%) and Bini (50.1%) by tribe. Majority of respondents in the study population had at most a primary school education [202(50.4%)], followed by No Formal [93(23.2%)]. Most of the elderly out-patients self-rated [145(36.1%)] their dental health as poor. One-Hundred and thirty-five (33.7%) of the patients rated their oral health as average. 51(12.7%) had previous visit to Dental Clinic within 1 Year; the main reasons reported for dental health visits were tooth ache (74, 18.5%), pain 63(15.7%) Extraction (49, 12.2%). While, the least common reason was treatment of inflammation (32,8%). However, 56.9% has never visited the dental clinic. The cost of transportation was the most frequent barrier 286 (71.3%), followed by Cost of Dental Services (197, 49.1%) and Pain of Procedure (121, 30.2%). A relatively significant number of the respondents [121(30.2%)] indicated that fear of pain of dental services is a dental services utilization barrier among the elderly. The rate of dental attendance of Elderly patients presenting to the dental clinic is low with toothache being the major presenting complain. The major barriers to dental clinic attendance were cost of transportation, followed by Cost of Dental Services and Pain of Procedure. It is therefore important to design oral health educational program for community dwelling elderly, raise awareness on available dental services, and stakeholders to address barriers of cost and transportation.
