Are Public Oral Care Services Evenly Distributed?—Nation-Wide Assessment of the Provision of Oral Care in Japan Using the National Database of Health Insurance Claims
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Editor and dear authors,
I carefully read the article entitled " Are Public Oral Care Services Evenly Distributed? - 2Nation-wide Assessment of the Provision of Oral Care in Japan Using the National Database of Health Insurance Claims ". I found the work interesting to read. However, I think there is a part in the paper that needs to be revised. Please see below the comments I would like to see addressed.
Introduction
- For the reader, a more detailed explanation of contents and units of Japanese receipts is required.
- “In addition, since the amount of dental care provision is closely linked to the workloads of den-69 tists [22] and other oral and dental care workers, such as dental hygienists and dental 70 technicians, -> Evidence for this sentence should be added.
Methods
- “ The standardized claims data ratio (SCR), adjusted for gender and age (5-year age 97 group) was used to measure the use of oral care services in 47 prefectures [25] to compare 98 the amount of dental and oral care prescriptions.”
I wonder if the number of receipts means the number of treatments. If so, it is regrettable that the cost (weight) of treatment has not been analyzed. Therefore, it should be added to the limitations of the study.
Results
- (Figure 1): What each bar graph means must be written.
- (Figure 2): Chinese character must be changed to English.
- ..: It needs to be corrected. What does “the dots(figure)” mean?
- “Z-scores of issued dental receipts in secondary medical care areas”
- I wonder why you used the 2018 data, not 2016.
- Why don't we add the results of the year-to-year difference to the discusion?
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper has investigated the status of oral and dental care provision in Japan and examined the influence of human resources and economic indicators on the provision of oral and dental care services. It found that the amount of oral care provided tended to be higher in metropolitan areas, especially for periodontal diseases. The number of dentists and income per capita influenced the amount of oral care provided.
I find this paper to be of high quality, both in text and in analyses provided. The findings are not surprising but still important to show. The authors conclude that these findings show that oral health care services are generally well provided, and I agree with this.
Maybe even more important than evenly distributed oral care services is its relation to individuals’ need for oral care and this aspect is only partly discussed. Is it the right patient groups who received the services? How could this be examined?
Some of the figures might need minor adjustments.
In Fig 1, the colours used for males and females are not presented.
Fig 2 includes some Japanese symbols
Fig 3 and 4 are quite plotty (but informative).
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
