Statistics and Indicators

In 2021, 53.3% of respondents to the ACT General Health Survey aged 18 years and over reported that their last visit to a dental health professional was less than 12 months ago. While males (50.0%) were slightly less likely to report going to a dentist in the last 12 months than females (56.8%), this difference was not significant. 

For the purpose of reporting the ACT General Health Survey data on HealthStats, if the 95% confidence intervals of the estimates do not overlap, they are considered to be significantly different.  

Note: The indicator shows self-reported data collected through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). Estimates were weighted to adjust for differences in the probability of selection among respondents and were benchmarked to the estimated residential population using the latest available Australian Bureau of Statistics population estimates.

Persons includes male, female, other and refused sex respondents and may not always add to the sum of male and female.

The following categories have been combined due to small numbers: 

- 10 years or more or never.

The following estimates have a relative standard error between 25% and 50% and should be used with caution:

- 2018: females whose last visit to a dental professional was 10 years or more or never
- 2020: males and females whose last visit to a dental health professional was 10 years or more or never
- 2021: females whose last visit to a dental health professional was 10 years or more or never.            

Statistically significant differences are difficult to detect for smaller jurisdictions such as the Australian Capital Territory. Sometimes, even large apparent differences may not be statistically significant. This is particularly the case in breakdowns of small populations because the small sample size means that there is not enough power to identify even large differences as statistically significant.