Impact of Economic Conditions on Dental Care. Consumer Omnibus Results

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1 Impact of Economic Conditions on Dental Care Consumer Omnibus Results

2 Table of Contents Impact of economy on take-home pay 3 Dental insurance 4 Which health-related activities have limited/will limit 5 Critical health activities to well-being 6 Long term cost impact of skipping a routine dental visit 7 Methodology 8

3 Impact of economy on take-home pay 30% of adults indicate that take-home pay is less than last year as a result of current economic conditions. Groups in the (39%) and (39%) age ranges report less take-home pay than the previous year. Additionally, 34% of middle income earners ($50K less than 75K) report earning less this year than last year. This indicates an opportunity to frame the story that a significant portion of the population has felt an impact in their wallets. As a result of current economic conditions, would you say your net income or take-home pay is more than last year, less than last year, or about the same as last year?

4 Dental insurance Nearly one-half (44%) of respondents do not currently have dental insurance. Aging respondents (65+) are least likely to have dental insurance with only 37% insured. Only 39% of lower income earners (Less than $35K) have dental insurance. This finding is valuable as the number of aging Americans continues to increase, indicating the possibility of an underserved population for dental care. Do you currently have dental insurance?

5 Which health-related activities have limited/will limit Routine dental visits and dental visits for other needs are the most likely to be limited as a result of the current financial situation. Younger adults (18-34) were more likely than any other age group to limit routine dental visits (44%) or dental visits for other dental needs (41%). An opportunity exists to highlight the long-term adverse impact due to missing routine or other dental visits, especially with younger adults. I m going to read you a list of health-related activities. For each, please tell me whether you have limited or will limit any of the following due to your current financial situation.

6 Critical health activities to well-being Only one-third of adults feel that routine dental visits are critical to their well-being the lowest response of all healthrelated activities asked. Dental activities overall tend to be perceived as less than critical in comparison with other healthrelated activities. Even in emergency cases, only 57% of adults feel a dental visit is critical to their well-being when compared to other medical reasons (71%.) This data further suggests that adults are more apt to delay dental visits when compared to other health-related activities. Please tell me which of the following health-related activities you consider to be critical to your well-being, which you consider to be nice to have, but can be delayed, and which are not necessary.

7 Long term cost impact of skipping a routine dental visit 80% of adults agree that postponing or delaying a routine dental visit will cost more money in the long run. 59% of adults age strongly agree with this statement, possibly indicating personal experience with increased long-term costs for missing routine dental visits. This finding is especially valuable that over threequarters of adults recognize the long-term cost for delaying a dental visit, yet it doesn t appear to alter behavior. A possibility exists to put actual dollars to this long-term cost to help educate consumers especially younger adults. Please tell me how much you agree or disagree with the following statement. Postponing or delaying routine dental visits for examination and cleaning will cost you more money in the long run than you might save on skipping routine visits.

8 Methodology CARAVAN Landline/Cell Phone Methodology This report presents the findings of a telephone survey conducted among two national probability samples, which, when combined, consists of 1,005 adults, 501 men and 504 women 18 years of age and older, living in the continental United States. Interviewing for this CARAVAN Survey was completed on February 28-March 3, interviews were from the landline sample and 350 interviews from the cell phone sample. All CARAVAN interviews are conducted using ORC International s (ORC) computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) system. As required by the Code of Standards of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO), we will maintain the anonymity of our respondents. No information will be released that in any way will reveal the identity of a respondent. Sampling The CARAVAN landline-cell combined sample is a dual frame sampling design. This means that the sample is drawn from two independent non-overlapping sample frames one for landlines and one for cell phones. Land Line Sample ORC s Random Digit Dial (RDD) telephone sample is generated using a list-assisted methodology. That is, the updated white page listings that are used to identify telephone number banks (the first 8 digits of the phone number) with a listed phone number in them. The standard that we use is 2+, meaning that a bank needs to have 2 or more listed households to be considered working. We use the Genesys Sampling in-house system to generate list-assisted Random Digit Dialing sample.

9 Methodology (cont.) The standard GENESYS RDD methodology produces a strict single stage, EPSEM (Equal Opportunity of Selection Method) sample of residential telephone numbers. In other words, a GENESYS RDD sample ensures an equal and known probability of selection for every residential telephone number in the sample frame. Cell Phone Sample The MSG Cellular RDD database is constructed quarterly utilizing Telecordia s LERG product. The LERG is a continuously updated suite of telephony databases that, among other things, provides current information for every active Thousand Series Block in the North American Numbering Plan. Using multiple files within the LERG, every thousand series block that is dedicated to providing wireless service is identified and incorporated into the Cellular RDD database. Additionally, switch locations for the selected thousand series blocks are determined. This provides the information needed to map each cellular thousand series block to a county. The cell phone sample was generated from cell phone only 1,000 series blocks with all the 100 series banks within each block turned on. The sampling interval is then calculated by dividing the universe of all possible numbers by the number of records desired, thus specifying the size of the frame subdivisions. At this point, the frame size has been fixed and divided into equal-sized subsets of ten-digit numbers. Within each of the subsets one number is selected at random giving all numbers an equal probability of selection.