Comprehensive oral health for adults 60 years of age: a territorial analysis of its coverage 12 years after its implementation

Abstract

Introduction. Elderly people in Chile have a high burden of oral morbidity and functional deficits that directly affect their quality of life. The universal GES program: “Comprehensive Oral Health for the 60-year-old adult”, implemented since 2007, allows 60-year-olds to access comprehensive dental treatment, however there is limited evidence of its results to date.
The aim of this study is to estimate the coverage of the program for the year 2019 of the public health insurance FONASA beneficiaries and their territorial variability disaggregated by Health Service (HS), sex and type of provider (public or purchase of services).
Materials and Methods. An observational ecological study was carried out, using secondary data from public sources (DEIS, FONASA). Total national coverage and by sex was estimated, stratified for each SS.
Results. The coverage of the program in the public health sector was 22.8% in 2019. The lowest coverage was observed in Arica HS (5.3%) and the highest in Arauco HS (37.9%). National coverage was significantly higher (p-value = 0.001) in women (27.1%) than in men (17.9%). Purchase of services from external providers totaled 12.2% of the dental discharges, this pro¬portion being heterogeneous between SS with an inverse relationship between “Purchase of services” and “Coverage”.
Discussion. The coverage for the evaluated year was low, being insufficient to be able to solve the high burden of morbidity of Chilean elderly. There is a wide territorial variability of coverage, presenting differences by sex and in the purchase of service