Data availability: Person-level cost-related avoidance of oral health services in the Canadian Oral Health Survey, 2023-2024

The Canadian Oral Health Survey (COHS) is a voluntary annual household survey that collects information directly from Canadians on their oral health.

The target population for the COHS consists of Canadian households with adults 18 years of age and older, living in the 10 provinces, as well as all household members aged 17 years and younger.

It excludes people living in the territories and on reserves and in other Indigenous settlements in the provinces, the institutionalized population, and members of the Canadian Forces living on a base.

In the COHS, the questions on avoidance were asked to the responding adult as follows: "In the past 12 months, have [you / you or other household members] avoided going to an oral health professional for your dental care due to the cost of care?" and "In the past 12 months, have [you / you or other household members] avoided getting any dental care recommended by an oral health professional because of the cost of care?" Therefore, responses were only available at the household level. Person-level derived variables related to avoidance were created using the household-level responses in combination with a data model built using data from the 2022 Canadian Community Health Survey. More information on the creation of the variable is available in the COHS Data User Guide.