Dudovitz Rebecca, Teutsch Carol, Holt Katrina, Herman Ariella
Department of Pediatrics and Children's Discovery and Innovations Institute, UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital, David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
UCLA Health Care Institute, Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
J Public Health Dent. 2020 Jun;80(2):150-158. doi: 10.1111/jphd.12361. Epub 2020 Feb 21.
Parental low oral health literacy is thought to contribute to child oral health disparities. Few large-scale interventions can improve oral health literacy for diverse, high-risk populations. We sought to determine whether an oral health literacy intervention aimed at parents of children attending Head Start programs improved oral health literacy and behaviors.
Staff from 29 Head Start agencies across the country were trained to deliver a parent oral health literacy intervention. Parent surveys were conducted at baseline and approximately 6 months later, following intervention completion. Surveys measured parent and child demographics, oral health knowledge, behaviors, information sources, and health care utilization. Paired t tests and mixed-effects regression models controlling for agency, child age, and race/ethnicity evaluated whether measures improved after the intervention. In addition, at follow-up, agency staff were asked to complete an open-ended survey reporting how the intervention impacted their site. Responses were coded using a grounded theory approach.
A total of 2,011 (87%) parents completed both the baseline and follow-up surveys. All oral health knowledge and behaviors improved significantly from baseline to follow-up. In addition, parents reported using more oral health information sources, using more preventative oral health care, and less emergency room (ER) use for child dental problems. Head Start staff perceived that the intervention increased parental oral health literacy, enhanced parental oral health engagement, improved child oral health behaviors, and facilitated health communication with parents.
Findings suggest that this intervention successfully improved oral health literacy for diverse parents of children at high risk for dental caries.
父母口腔健康素养较低被认为是导致儿童口腔健康差异的原因之一。很少有大规模干预措施能够提高不同高危人群的口腔健康素养。我们试图确定一项针对参加“提前开端计划”（Head Start）项目儿童的父母的口腔健康素养干预措施是否能提高口腔健康素养及相关行为。
来自全国29个“提前开端计划”机构的工作人员接受培训，以实施一项针对家长的口腔健康素养干预措施。在基线时以及干预完成后约6个月进行家长调查。调查测量了家长和儿童的人口统计学特征、口腔健康知识、行为、信息来源以及医疗保健利用情况。采用配对t检验和控制机构、儿童年龄及种族/族裔的混合效应回归模型来评估干预后各项指标是否有所改善。此外，在随访时，机构工作人员被要求完成一项开放式调查，报告该干预措施对其所在机构的影响。采用扎根理论方法对回答进行编码。
共有2011名（87%）家长完成了基线和随访调查。从基线到随访，所有口腔健康知识和行为均有显著改善。此外，家长报告使用了更多的口腔健康信息来源，采取了更多的预防性口腔保健措施，因儿童牙齿问题前往急诊室就诊的次数减少。“提前开端计划”工作人员认为该干预措施提高了家长的口腔健康素养，增强了家长对口腔健康的参与度，改善了儿童的口腔健康行为，并促进了与家长的健康沟通。
研究结果表明，该干预措施成功提高了患龋齿高风险儿童的不同家长的口腔健康素养。
