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SPATIAL SENSITIVITY OF OMAHA'S DENTAL FACILITIES: AN INQUIRY
Abstract
The Omaha dental service industry was examined by investigating aspects of both the supply of and the demand for dental services. The study was undertaken with the goal of seeking to better understand the spatial distribution of dental offices in a large urban area, and the consumer/patient response to that distribution. Spatial patterns of dentist locations and population and income levels were compared. In addition, dental firm cost and revenue data were collected and analyzed in order to determine if such factors were related to geographic location of the dental office. Consumer/patient data were analyzed in order to measure variation in dental utilization rates, as well as to determine the importance of the distance variable to Omaha dental service users. Data were obtained through a survey of primary-care dentists and a random sample of Omaha consumer/patients. A questionnaire was sent to all 236 Omaha dentists in 1979 with 93 (39 percent) responding. Consumer/patient questionnaires were mailed to 1000 Omaha residents, and after adjusting for natural deletions (i.e., moving, no such address, etc.), an effective sample of 809 legitimate addresses was obtained. Thirty-five percent of the residents yielded 285 responses to be analyzed. The areal distribution of Omaha dentists was compared with that of population and income for 1978. An eleven unit areal system (weighted to socioeconomic variables of the population) was used to analyze dentist and consumer data. Correlation analysis indicated a positive relationship between the absolute population and number of dentists (+.62), while a weaker correlation was revealed when the densities of population and dentists were used (+.26). The correlation between dentist distribution and median family income levels was +.42 when all areal units were included, but was a much stronger +.79 (and significant at the .05 confidence level) when the downtown area was deleted. This correlation result indicated that the dentist distribution was associated with income variations in Omaha. A second study objective was to assess possible importance of locational differences in costs and revenues to the individual dentist or dental firm (i.e., analyze the spatial sensitivity of the dentist). Analysis of major dental costs (i.e., labor, rent, etc.) indicated that none was significantly different from area to area. It remains for future researchers to establish whether or not such costs vary spatially in other cities. The direct complement to analyzing dental costs was to investigate dental revenues. The third hypothesis of this study stated that dental revenues did not vary over urban space. The findings revealed that dental practices varied in both practice types, and in general fees charged to consumer/patients. Thus, dentist revenues were found to vary significantly since fees/prices for dental services varied. Correlation results indicated only one dental fee (child's prophylaxis) that was significantly related to either income levels or to mean visits to the family dentist. Another objective was to analyze the importance of distance to the dentist office from the consumer/patient perspective. Results indicated no significant differences between the number of family visits and distance to the dentist office. In addition, there were no significant differences between race, income levels, and residential location and distances that the consumer/patients had to travel to the family dental office. Conclusions of this study indicated that, in general, dentists are not necessarily constrained by major costs in the choice of an urban office location in Omaha. Moreover, consumer mobility and accessibility to dental services does not seem constrained by the distance factor. The findings should contribute to the understanding of existing spatial and economic factors involved in the supply of and the demand for dental services.
Subject Area
Geography
Recommended Citation
KINWORTHY, JOHN CHARLES, "SPATIAL SENSITIVITY OF OMAHA'S DENTAL FACILITIES: AN INQUIRY" (1981). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8127157.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8127157