Brief oral health promotion intervention among parents of young children to reduce early childhood dental decay

Peter Arrow,Joseph Raheb,Margaret Miller

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-245

Peter Arrow, Joseph Raheb + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-245

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Abstract

BackgroundSevere untreated dental decay affects a child’s growth, body weight, quality of life as well as cognitive development, and the effects extend beyond the child to the family, the community and the health care system. Early health behavioural factors, including dietary practices and eating patterns, can play a major role in the initiation and development of oral diseases, particularly dental caries. The parent/caregiver, usually the mother, has a critical role in the adoption of protective health care behaviours and parental feeding practices strongly influence children’s eating behaviours. This study will test if an early oral health promotion intervention through the use of brief motivational interviewing (MI) and anticipatory guidance (AG) approaches can reduce the incidence of early childhood dental decay and obesity.MethodsThe study will be a randomised controlled study with parents and their new-born child/ren who are seen at 6–12 weeks of age by a child/community health nurse. Consenting parents will complete a questionnaire on oral health knowledge, behaviours, self-efficacy, oral health fatalism, parenting stress, prenatal and peri-natal health and socio-demographic factors at study commencement and at 12 and 36 months. Each child–parent pair will be allocated to an intervention or a standard care group, using a computer-generated random blocks. The standard group will be managed through the standard early oral health screening program; “lift the lip”. The intervention group will be provided with tailored oral health counselling by oral health consultants trained in MI and AG.Participating children will be examined at 24, and 36 months for the occurrence of dental decay and have their height and weight recorded. Dietary information obtained from a food frequency chart will be used to determine food and dietary patterns. Data analysis will use intention to treat and per protocol analysis and will use tests of independent proportions and means. Multivariate statistical tests will also be used to take account of socio-economic and demographic factors in addition to parental knowledge, behaviour, self-efficacy, and parent/child stress.DiscussionThe study will test the effects of an oral health promotion intervention to affect oral health and general health and have the potential to demonstrate the “common risk factor” approach to health promotion.Trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: http://ACTRN12611000997954

Highlights

Severe untreated dental decay affects a child’s growth, body weight, quality of life as well as cognitive development, and the effects extend beyond the child to the family, the community and the health care system
Information available from the Western Australian Dental Health Service (DHS) suggests that the majority of children that register with the Service at age five had not attended any dental care facility and were unlikely to have received any specific oral health care information
One in three 5-year-old children examined in Western Australia (WA) was affected by dental decay and one in ten had more than five teeth affected with dental decay, the majority of which was untreated

Summary

Introduction

Severe untreated dental decay affects a child’s growth, body weight, quality of life as well as cognitive development, and the effects extend beyond the child to the family, the community and the health care system. The most recent report on Australian children’s dental health indicated that, among 4-year-olds in 2005, approximately 37 percent of children had at least one decayed baby tooth. The mean decay experience (dmft) of WA 5-year-olds in 2009 was 1.26 of which 1.03 (82%) was the “d” component (untreated dental decay) (personal communication: DHS, 2009). Severe untreated decay affects a child’s growth, body weight, quality of life as well as cognitive development, and the effects extend beyond the child, to the family, the community and the health care system [3,4,5]

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