Background and Objectives
Biannual preventive dental visits are recommended to promote good oral
health and identify problems, yet children in many families do not
receive this care due to time-related barriers. Paid sick leave
mandates have the potential to relieve parental time constraints and
facilitate scheduling and attending pediatric dental visits; thus, we
sought to evaluate the effects of state paid sick leave mandates on
children’s receipt of preventive dental care.
Methods
Using 2016 to
2023 National Survey of Children’s Health data and a
difference-in-differences approach, we compared trends in children’s
receipt of preventive dental care in states that did and did not
implement paid sick leave mandates.
Results
Pre-implementation of
paid sick leave mandates, children residing in states that later
implemented these policies were more likely to have received
preventive dental care, to be non-Hispanic white, to have private
health insurance, and to have parents with more than a high school
education, relative to children residing in states that never
implemented paid sick leave mandates. State paid sick leave mandates
were associated with a 3.2% relative increase (95% CI: 0.2%, 6.2%) in
rates of children receiving preventive dental care, controlling for
time-varying demographic and policy characteristics, with state and
year fixed effects.
Conclusions
State-paid sick leave mandates may
alleviate competing parental work and caregiving responsibilities and
provide parents with additional time and flexibility to obtain dental
care for their children.
