University of Tasmania
Browse

File(s) under permanent embargo

Evidence of the effect of rural background on rural practice in Australian dental practitioners: does gender play a role?

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 21:19 authored by Godwin, D, Christopher BlizzardChristopher Blizzard, Thi HoangThi Hoang, Crocombe, LA

Background: People residing outside the capital cities have poorer oral health than their city counterparts. Health workforce shortages and stability issues can have negative health effects on rural populations. There has been an increasing proportion of women entering the dental practitioner workforce in Australia. This study investigated whether dental practitioners who have a rural background are more likely to work in a rural area than those who do not have a rural background; and whether the gender of dental practitioners plays a role.

Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was sent to a sample of dental practitioners via their professional dental associations. Practice location was assigned either ‘urban’ or ‘rural’ using the ASGC-RA categories and measured with demographic characteristics of the respondents. Prevalence ratios (PR) were estimated using Poisson regression with robust standard errors.

Results: Participants with a rural background were more than twice as likely (men PR 2.23, 95%CI = 0.79-6.26, women PR 2.82, 1.35-5.87) to practice in a rural area than those with an urban background.

Conclusions: Dental practitioners with rural backgrounds were more than twice as likely to work in rural practice as their urban counterparts.

History

Publication title

Australian Dental Journal

Volume

62

Pagination

30-38

ISSN

0045-0421

Department/School

School of Health Sciences

Publisher

Australian Dental Assn Inc

Place of publication

Australia

Rights statement

Copyright 2016 Australian Dental Association

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Rural and remote area health

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC