For undergraduates, a trip to the dentist can reflect more than oral health. Those who kept up with dental exams were also more likely to schedule eye and physical exams, carry health insurance, and rate their overall health more positively, according to new study .
"We can think of primary care as a kind of gateway to other preventive care and specialized services," said Vanessa Alvarez, the study's lead author and a second-year MPH Epidemiology student at George Mason University's College of Public Health. "When students maintain the habit of seeing one type of provider regularly, it seems to spill over into how they approach their health more broadly."
Alvarez conducted the study with renowned obesity researcher Lawrence Cheskin , professor of nutrition at George Mason. Cheskin is co-principal investigator of Mason: Health Starts Here , the university's landmark cohort study following students across their four undergraduate years.
The dental care study analyzed data from 349 first-year students enrolled in the cohort. The research found that:
Students who had a dental exam before college were much more likely to keep up the habit two years later.
Health insurance predicted dental visits at baseline, and students who got one type of preventive exam (dental, eye, or physical) were more likely to get the others.
Students who had dental exams, more parental financial support, and higher levels of hope also rated their overall health more positively.
Dental exam rates held steady from before to after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers also noted a complex relationship with anxiety. Students reporting mild anxiety were sometimes more likely to seek dental care, but higher anxiety correlated with avoiding preventive exams. "It's not a straight-line relationship," explained Cheskin. "If you're a little bit anxious, it may motivate you to see a doctor. If you're very anxious, you may avoid it."
The bigger picture of student health
The dental study is just one slice of Mason: Health Starts Here, the university's first-of-its-kind longitudinal study tracking the health and habits of undergraduates. Since 2019, more than a thousand George Mason students have enrolled and completed detailed surveys, with some taking physical exams. Researchers monitor everything from diet and exercise to sleep, mental health, and substance use, returning health feedback to participants along the way.
Findings from the cohort data so far have shed light on links between discrimination and disordered eating , how loneliness affects diet and physical activity, and the intersection of firearm access and substance use , among other topics.
Several new studies are now underway. As a companion to the dental research, Alvarez is now leading a study on eye exams, while other researchers are looking into gynecological care among female students. Cheskin says future work will also focus on how diet and exercise habits changed from pre- to post-pandemic, and on mental health trends such as depression and hopefulness.
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