Higher Family Income and Clinical Dental Outcomes of Minority Children: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Purpose: This study utilized Minorities′ Diminished Return theory and aimed to learn if minority children gain less protective effect from higher family income compared to White children for dental caries and multiple oral health problems. Methods: This study was designed cross-sectionally from 21,599 subject-responses to the 2017 National Survey of Children′s Health. Specific outcomes included parental-reported dental caries and multiple oral health problems (e.g., toothaches, bleeding gums, and/or caries) compared across Hispanic and non-Hispanic White, Black, Asian, and Multi-race children. Logistic regression models estimated the effects of race/ethnicity on each outcome, with adjustments for child sex, parental education, child age, and income-to-needs ratio. Results: The findings showed when all racial/ethnic groups increased family income and socioeconomic status, there were no statistically significant differences between all racial/ethnic groups for the parental-reported dental caries and multiple oral health problems. Conclusions: This study′s findings show either 1) Minorities′ Diminished Return theory, which postulates that structural racism negatively impacts health gains from higher socioeconomic status for minority children, does not apply to children′s dental caries and multiple oral health problems or 2) the biologic load of the caries disease process supersedes the protective health gain effects from increased family income, expected by Minorities′ Diminished Return theory. Regardless, dentists and policymakers must support best practices and policies which benefit entire populations of children, through widespread disease prevention techniques, access-to-care, and utilization-of-care programs to decrease levels of childhood caries and other oral health problems.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Funding Statement

This study was funded by the Hansj&oumlrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery, NYU Langone Health

Author Declarations

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

Ethics committee/IRB of the NYU Grossman Medical School waived ethical approval for this work

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Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Yes

Data Availability

All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors

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