Foláyan Moréniké Oluwátóyìn, Arowolo Olaniyi, Mohebbi Simin Z, Khami Mohammad R
Department of Child Dental Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife, Nigeria.
Research Center for Caries Prevention, Dentistry Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
BMC Res Notes. 2025 Aug 11;18(1):347. doi: 10.1186/s13104-025-07422-w.
The qualitative study described culture-related issues that may bridge the ethical conduct of fieldwork for a cross-sectional study of the oral health of preschool children in the Ife Central Local Government Area of Nigeria, conducted between December 2024 and January 2025.
There were 1,411 mother‒child pairs recruited by 20 research assistants and nine dentists trained on ethical considerations and cultural sensitivity before data collection began. A group discussion (debriefing session) was held with 18 consenting research assistants and nine dentists of the fieldwork. The transcripts from the discussions were inductively analysed, and key themes were identified. Both research assistants and dentists observed cultural norms infringing on the privacy of study participants, and dentists had to overcome mistrust and consent challenges (concerns with touching the child's head during height measurement and with dentists conducting oral examinations). This study highlights the need to map the cultural nuances of study sites before conducting a population-level survey to help develop culturally sensitive study protocols.
这项定性研究描述了一些与文化相关的问题，这些问题可能会在2024年12月至2025年1月期间对尼日利亚伊费中央地方政府辖区学龄前儿童口腔健康进行的横断面研究的实地调查的道德行为中起到桥梁作用。
在数据收集开始前，由20名研究助理和9名接受过道德考量和文化敏感性培训的牙医招募了1411对母婴。与18名同意参与的实地调查研究助理和9名牙医进行了一次小组讨论（汇报会）。对讨论的文字记录进行了归纳分析，并确定了关键主题。研究助理和牙医都观察到文化规范侵犯了研究参与者的隐私，并且牙医必须克服不信任和同意方面的挑战（在身高测量时触摸孩子头部以及牙医进行口腔检查时的担忧）。这项研究强调了在进行人群层面调查之前，需要梳理研究地点的文化细微差别，以帮助制定具有文化敏感性的研究方案。
