Abstract
The scope of this study was to measure the prevalence and identify factors associated with the non-use of dental care among pregnant women living in the municipality of Rio Grande, RS. In 2013, previously trained interviewers applied a single, standardized questionnaire within 48 hours after childbirth to all puerperal women living in this city. The chi-square test was used to compare proportions and, for multivariate analysis, Poisson regression with robust variance adjustment was used to obtain the prevalence ratio. Among the 2.653 puerperal women included in this study, 60.1% (95% CI: 58.2% - 61.9%) did not use any type of dental service during gestation. After adjustment, the probability of not using these services was significantly higher among pregnant women of lower age, income and schooling, who lived with more people at home, who performed a smaller number of prenatal consultations, who had prenatal care in the public service, and who were not attended under the Family Health Strategy (FHS). Encouraging pregnant women with this epidemiological profile to look for dental services during prenatal consultations and to expand the FHS on offer are measures with great potential to increase coverage for this type of service in the location studied.
Key words
Pregnant women; Dental care; Prenatal care; Oral health