Kaur Navdeep, Kandelman Daniel, Potvin Louise
Postdoctoral researcher, Method development platform, Quebec SPOR-SUPPORT Unit, Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Associate professor, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Can J Dent Hyg. 2019 Feb 1;53(1):23-32.
Research shows that immigrants have higher rates of oral diseases, poorer access to dental care services, and lower levels of health literacy than their Canadian-born peers. Oral health literacy has emerged as a potential pathway to reduce oral health disparities. The scarcity of studies on oral health literacy interventions, particularly among immigrants, lent urgency to this study, the purpose of which was to evaluate the effectiveness of an oral health literacy intervention promoting oral hygiene self-care behaviour among Punjabi immigrants.
The study used a parallel group, non-blinded, randomized controlled trial design. One hundred and forty (140) Punjabi immigrants between 18 and 60 years of age were enrolled. Participants were randomly allocated to receive either the Safeguard Your Smile (SYS) intervention or a conventional pamphlet. The following outcome measures were assessed at baseline and 3 months post-intervention: self-reported oral hygiene self-care behaviour and knowledge, plaque and gingival indices, and oral health literacy. A linear mixed model for repeated measures was used to compare the intervention and control groups (between) at pre- and post-intervention (within).
Participants who received the SYS intervention showed improvements ( <0.0001) for the following dependent variables: oral hygiene self-care knowledge and behaviour, oral health literacy, and plaque and gingival indices.
SYS intervention enhanced positive oral hygiene self-care behaviour among Punjabi immigrants with low oral health literacy. SYS intervention can be employed among other vulnerable groups with low levels of oral health literacy to improve oral hygiene self-care behaviour.
研究表明，与在加拿大出生的同龄人相比，移民的口腔疾病发病率更高，获得牙科护理服务的机会更少，健康素养水平更低。口腔健康素养已成为减少口腔健康差距的一条潜在途径。关于口腔健康素养干预措施的研究稀缺，尤其是在移民中，这使得本研究具有紧迫性，其目的是评估一项促进旁遮普移民口腔卫生自我护理行为的口腔健康素养干预措施的有效性。
本研究采用平行组、非盲、随机对照试验设计。招募了140名年龄在18至60岁之间的旁遮普移民。参与者被随机分配接受“保护你的微笑”（SYS）干预或一份传统宣传册。在基线和干预后3个月评估以下结局指标：自我报告的口腔卫生自我护理行为和知识、菌斑和牙龈指数以及口腔健康素养。使用重复测量的线性混合模型来比较干预组和对照组（组间）在干预前和干预后（组内）的情况。
接受SYS干预的参与者在以下因变量上有改善（<0.0001）：口腔卫生自我护理知识和行为、口腔健康素养以及菌斑和牙龈指数。
SYS干预增强了口腔健康素养较低的旁遮普移民的积极口腔卫生自我护理行为。SYS干预可应用于其他口腔健康素养水平较低的弱势群体，以改善口腔卫生自我护理行为。
