School of Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Department of Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2024 Oct;52(5):739-748. doi: 10.1111/cdoe.12972. Epub 2024 May 4.
A conceptual model was designed and tested to predict immigrant children's oral health in Canada by examining parental acculturation and perceived social support (PSS) using structural equation modelling.
A convenience sample of first-generation immigrant parents and their children aged 2-12 years were recruited by multilingual community workers in Edmonton, Canada. Parents completed a validated questionnaire on demographics, child's oral health (OH) behaviours, parental acculturation and PSS. Dental examinations determined children's dental caries rate using DMFT/dmft index. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data.
A total of 336 families participated in this study. The average parental acculturation level was 10.46 with a maximum of 15, and the average PSS was 63.27 with a maximum of 75. SEM showed that 77% of the variance of DMFT/dmft scores in children was explained by parental PSS, acculturation level, immigration-related variables, socioeconomic variables and children's OH behaviours. The direct effect of parental PSS was associated with a significantly reduced rate of dental caries (β = -.076, p-value = .008) and lower sugar consumption (β = -.17, p-value = .04). While the mediation effect of parental acculturation on PSS was associated with positive OH behaviours of children (e.g., toothbrushing frequency and dental care utilization), the indirect effect was negatively associated with caries rate (β = .77, p-value = .00).
The direct effect of Parental Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was associated with more favourable oral health behaviours and a lower prevalence of dental caries, while the mediation effect of acculturation was linked to a higher prevalence of dental caries.
通过结构方程模型，考察父母的文化适应和感知社会支持（PSS），设计并检验了一个预测加拿大移民儿童口腔健康的概念模型。
在加拿大埃德蒙顿，通过多语言社区工作者招募第一代移民父母及其 2-12 岁的子女作为便利样本。父母填写了一份关于人口统计学、儿童口腔健康行为、父母文化适应和感知社会支持的有效问卷。通过 DMFT/dmft 指数，牙科检查确定儿童的龋齿率。采用结构方程模型（SEM）分析数据。
共有 336 个家庭参与了这项研究。父母的平均文化适应水平为 10.46（最高 15），平均感知社会支持为 63.27（最高 75）。SEM 显示，儿童 DMFT/dmft 评分的 77%方差由父母感知社会支持、文化适应水平、移民相关变量、社会经济变量和儿童口腔健康行为解释。父母感知社会支持的直接效应与龋齿率的显著降低（β=-0.076，p 值=0.008）和糖摄入量的降低（β=-0.17，p 值=0.04）有关。而父母文化适应对感知社会支持的中介效应与儿童积极的口腔健康行为（如刷牙频率和口腔保健利用）有关，间接效应与龋齿率呈负相关（β=0.77，p 值=0.00）。
父母感知社会支持量表（PSS）的直接效应与更有利的口腔健康行为和更低的龋齿患病率有关，而文化适应的中介效应与更高的龋齿患病率有关。
