DPH Senior Dental Staff University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics
Participants should be aware of the following financial/non-financial relationships: . ChangHee Jin, DDS: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.. Raymond A. Kuthy, DDS, MPH: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.. Jeffrey Chaffin, DDS, MPH, MBA, MHA: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.. Susan C. McKernan, DMD, MS, PhD: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Abstract: Objectives: This study examined dentists’ moving patterns in Iowa from 2000 to 2019 in order to identify potential trends in movement between urban and rural areas.
Methods: The source of data was the Iowa Dentist Tracking System (IDTS). All active dentists in Iowa in 2000 (n=1424) were used as a baseline. The final sample (n=616) included dentists who remained in private practice in Iowa during the study period. From the final sample, movers were identified based on a change in the year 2000 street address as of 2019. Urbanicity of practice locations was measured at the county level using the 2013 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC). Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify characteristics associated with relocation over the study period.
Results: Among dentists who remained in private practice in Iowa during the study period, 77.8% remained in the same practice location. Among dentists who moved (n=137), 74.5% did not change the urbanicity of their practice locations, 13.9% moved to more urban areas and 11.7% moved to more rural areas. Among those who did not change the urbanicity of practice locations (n=102), 80.4% or 82 relocated from one metro (RUCC codes 1-3) location to another metro location.
Conclusions: Only 22.2% of the final sample moved during the study period. Nearly 3/4 of the movers kept the same urbanicity. A few more dentists relocated to more urbanized areas than rural areas. Overall, dentists who moved showed a preference toward metro areas over non-metro areas.
