Effect of early dental health education for Finnish immigrant families.

The aim of the study was to evaluate whether or not the dental health of Finnish immigrant children would benefit from an extra session of information to the parents at the Child Health Centre, and whether this information, to be effective, should be given in Finnish. A further aim was to study the effect of this information on the parent's dental health knowledge and behaviour. Three groups of Finnish children, two test groups (FF and FS) and one control group (FC), and one control group of Swedish children (SC) took part in the study in Norrbotten and Stockholm county respectively. When the children were 6, 18 and 27 months of age, the parents of the Finnish test groups received information, the FF-groups in Finnish, and the FS-groups in Swedish. The parents of the Finnish and Swedish control groups were informed when the children were 6 and 18 months of age in Swedish. The various programmes were evaluated by comparing prevalence of dental caries of the children at the age of 3, as well as parents' attitudes to and knowledge of dental health and dental health behaviour. In Norrbotten 71% of the children in the FF-group were caries free compared to 53% in the FS-, 30% in the FC- and 80% in the SC-groups, and dfs averaged 1.7, 2.7, 6.0 and 0.9 for the groups respectively. The percentages of caries free children in Stockholm were 71, 58, 32 and 82 for the groups respectively and the mean dfs values 1.2, 2.1, 4.6 and 0.7. The data from the 36-month appointment showed equally good dental health knowledge and behaviour for the FF-groups as for the Swedish control groups.