Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, UMass Chan Medical School, 55 N Lake Avenue, Worcester, MA, 01655, USA.
Department of Oral Health Policy & Epidemiology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, 188 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Matern Child Health J. 2024 Jul;28(7):1168-1177. doi: 10.1007/s10995-024-03905-7. Epub 2024 Feb 17.
Oral health (OH) has significant effects on pregnancy and infant outcomes. This study assesses the perspectives of obstetrical clinicians about OH education and promotion.
A fifteen-item survey was developed and circulated to obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN) and family medicine (FM) physicians, and other prenatal health clinicians in Massachusetts (MA). Additionally, eight physicians were purposively sampled for in-depth interviews to discuss their experience with prenatal OH training and practice. Bivariate relationships between outcome variables from the survey (e.g., previous OH training, awareness of OH guidelines, asking about OH during prenatal visits) were analyzed along with coding and analysis of the qualitative interview data.
The majority (77%) of the 86 survey respondents did not feel well-trained in OH. We found significant associations between being well-trained in OH and: (1) awareness of state guidelines (X = 11.85, p < 0.001); (2) asking about OH during prenatal visits (X = 9.21, p = 0.002); and (3) routinely referring patients for dental care (X = 15.35, p < 0.001). Lack of access to dental insurance and dental professionals were found to be major perceived barriers to care. Responses from the interviews reinforced these findings.
口腔健康（OH）对妊娠和婴儿结局有重大影响。本研究评估了产科临床医生对 OH 教育和促进的看法。
开发了一个包含十五个问题的调查，并分发给马萨诸塞州（MA）的妇产科医生和家庭医学医生以及其他产前保健临床医生。此外，还对八名医生进行了有针对性的抽样访谈，以讨论他们在产前 OH 培训和实践方面的经验。对调查的结果变量（例如，之前的 OH 培训、对 OH 指南的认识、在产前检查中询问 OH 情况）进行了双变量关系分析，并对定性访谈数据进行了编码和分析。
86 名调查受访者中的大多数（77%）对 OH 培训感觉不到良好。我们发现，在 OH 培训方面表现出色与以下因素显著相关：（1）对州立指南的认识（X=11.85，p<0.001）；（2）在产前检查中询问 OH 情况（X=9.21，p=0.002）；和（3）定期将患者转介给牙医进行治疗（X=15.35，p<0.001）。获得牙科保险和牙科专业人员的机会不足被认为是护理的主要障碍。访谈的回复加强了这些发现。
