Objective: To examine the oral health conditions and oral health behaviour of high-cost patients and evaluate oral health measures as predictors of future high-cost patients.
Design: A retrospective, population-based cohort study using administrative healthcare records.
Setting: The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) medical check-up database (a.k.a. NHIS-national health screening cohort database) in South Korea.
Participants: 131 549 individuals who received biennial health check-ups including dental check-ups in 2011 or 2012, aged 49-88.
Primary outcome measures: Current and subsequent year high-cost patient status.
Results: High-cost patients, on average, incur higher dental costs, suffer more from periodontal disease, brush their teeth less and use secondary oral hygiene products less. Some of the self-reported oral health behaviours and oral symptom variables show statistically significant associations with subsequent year high-cost patient indicators, even after adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, medical conditions, and prior healthcare cost and utilisation.
Conclusions: We demonstrate that oral health measures are associated with an increased risk of becoming a high-cost patient.
Keywords: high-cost patients; oral health; oral health behaviour; self-reported oral symptoms.
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