336 - Demographic Changes Among the Pediatric Patient Population at UNLV-SDM

The overall goal of this project will be to determine the demographic characteristics of the UNLV pediatric population as well as the indicators for socioeconomic status (SES), such as enrollment in public assistance or safety net services including Medicaid. This data will be compared over time to the previous studies to identify any relevant changes or trends that may help towards designing and implementing appropriate prevention strategies for pediatric oral health. Descriptive statistics (number and percentage) for demographic variables (sex, age, race/ethnicity) and SES indicators (Medicaid, CHIP enrollment) have be compiled. Analysis of any changes has been completed using Chi square analysis. The results of this analysis revealed that the percentage of minority pediatric patients between 2010 and 2020 has increased among African Americans (7.1% to 15.4% P=0.1137), Asian Americans (2.0% to 4.6%, P=0.448) and significantly among mixed or multiracial patients (3.4% to 18.0%, P=0.0008). While the percentage of Caucasian or White patients experienced a slight but non-significant increase (13.4% to 16.1%, P=0.6885). Hispanics declined significantly (53.7% to 30.4%, P=0.0009) over the same time period. This represents a slight non-significant decrease in minority patients from 86.6% to 83.9%, P=0.8665 with most of the changes associated with decreases among Hispanics and increases among mixed race patients. Although the overall percentage of UNLV-SDM pediatric patients receiving Medicaid has not changed significantly over the past decade, the composition of the patient population has experienced significant shifts with fewer Hispanics and more patients of mixed racial backgrounds. As the number of foreign languages spoken by children and parents has increased dramatically in Nevada between 2010 and 2020 according to the US Census Bureau, these same demographic shifts at UNLV-SDM may suggest that an increased need for multilingual health materials and translators may be needed to design and implement appropriate prevention and treatment strategies for pediatric oral health.