Dental Insurance Status Among Formerly Incarcerated Older Adults

Abstract

Formerly incarcerated individuals have poorer oral health and less frequent dental care utilization than the general population. However, prior work has overlooked the relationship between prior incarceration and disparities in dental insurance coverage. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (n = 11,638), findings from multiple logistic regression analyses demonstrate that formerly incarcerated older adults are significantly less likely to have dental insurance coverage (odds ratio [OR] = 0.745, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.608, 0.912). After accounting for the income-to-poverty ratio, this association was no longer statistically significant. Analyses using the Karlson-Holm-Breen method demonstrated that approximately 45% of the association between prior incarceration and dental insurance is explained by the income-to-poverty ratio. These findings suggest the need for policies to expand affordable dental coverage for formerly incarcerated older adults.

Keywords: dental insurance; health; health and retirement study; incarceration.