Table 1.

Characteristics of U.S. children aged 2–6 years (NSCH 2003, 2007, 2011/12)

Variables	Full sample (Unweighted N=68,890)	Public insurance (Unweighted N=20,780)	Private insurance (Unweighted N=48,110)
Parent-reported condition of child’s teeth*
Excellent	52.15%	40.37%	59.37%
Very good	23.25%	22.50%	23.71%
Good	17.36%	25.45%	12.41%
Fair	5.41%	8.73%	3.38%
Poor	1.62%	2.70%	0.97%
No teeth, didn’t know, or refused	0.21%	0.26%	0.17%
Parent-reported condition of child’s teeth dichotomized as excellent or very good teeth*	75.40%	62.87%	83.07%
Public health insurance	37.97%	100.00%
Private health insurance	62.03%		100.00%
Years since state implemented Medicaid fluoride varnish policy*
No policy	67.24%	65.98%	68.02%
<2 years	3.26%	2.27%	3.87%
2 or 3 years	18.66%	19.95%	17.87%
4 or more years	10.84%	11.80%	10.25%
Sex
Female	48.56%	48.86%	48.38%
Male	51.44%	51.14%	51.62%
Age group*
2–3 years	38.09%	39.89%	36.99%
4–6 years	61.91%	60.11%	63.01%
Race/ethnicity*
White, non-Hispanic	54.76%	33.39%	67.85%
Black, non-Hispanic	12.74%	20.49%	8.00%
Multi-racial/Other, non-Hispanic	11.84%	10.59%	12.60%
Hispanic	20.66%	35.52%	11.56%
Federal poverty level (FPL)*
Missing	9.45%	11.73%	8.05%
< 100% FPL	18.24%	42.18%	3.59%
100–199% FPL	19.77%	31.30%	12.72%
200–399% FPL	27.31%	12.43%	36.41%
400% or more FPL	25.23%	2.37%	39.23%
Child has a special health care need*	15.27%	17.91%	13.66%
Physical health status*
Excellent	62.96%	50.82%	70.39%
Very Good	22.84%	25.50%	21.22%
Good	11.41%	18.55%	7.04%
Fair or Poor	2.79%	5.14%	1.36%

Unweighted frequencies and weighted percentages are provided. Chi-square tests were used to compare each variable for children with public and private insurance coverage.

^*P-value <0.001