Oral health care access and utilization among people with hearing impairments: evidence from a Jordanian comparative study.
Sabha Mahmoud Alshatrat, Wael Mousa Al-Omari, Abedelmalek Kalefh Tabnjh and 3 others
People with hearing impairments in Jordan visited the dentist less in the past year (47% vs 64%) and reported significantly more barriers — distance, inaccessible parking, untrained dentists, and embarrassment — than those without hearing impairments.
Key findings
1People with hearing impairments reported fewer dental visits in the past year (47%) than those without (64%).
2Six barriers were significantly more common in the hearing-impairment group: distance to the office, inaccessible parking, inadequate facilities, dentists' lack of disability knowledge, only general dentists available, and embarrassment.
3No significant differences between groups were found for treatment cost, clinic hours, waiting times, dental fear, or insurance coverage.
Still to come
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The hearing-impairment group was 87.9% under 18 while the control group was 65% under 18, and no statistical adjustment for age was made, so the barrier differences may partly reflect age and socioeconomic differences rather than hearing status. 93.6% of the hearing-impairment group came from centers in Amman, limiting generalizability to other regions of Jordan. Convenience sampling was used in both groups, and the hearing-impairment group was recruited only from specialized centers, so people with hearing impairments not connected to such centers are not represented. Only chi-square tests were used; no regression analysis was performed to adjust for confounders such as age, income, or hearing severity. Hearing severity was recorded but not used as an analytical variable, so it is unknown whether more severe impairment is associated with greater barriers.
Declared interests
Funded by a Jordan University of Science and Technology Research Grant (No. 20170032). No industry funding or conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the barrier differences as proof that hearing impairment itself causes dental access problems — the two groups differed substantially in age (87.9% under 18 vs 65%) and family income (50.7% earning under 250 JD vs 1.3%), and no statistical adjustment for these factors was made, so the gap may partly reflect age and socioeconomic disadvantage rather than hearing status.
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