Abstract
Background: Poor oral health remains a significant dental public health challenge for ethnic minority and immigrant groups living in the UK. This study aimed to evaluate a culturally appropriate community-based home visiting oral health education intervention for Chinese, undocumented migrant mothers to promote their infants’ oral health, by focusing on their oral health related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Methods: A convenience sample of 36 Chinese mothers with babies aged less than eight weeks were recruited in South-East region of Belfast. The local Chinese community was consulted to assist with the development of the intervention. The oral health education intervention was provided to 19 intervention group mothers through home visits and telephone calls during mothers’ first postpartum year. They were also provided with unlimited social support during the intervention period. Mothers’ oral health related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding baby toothbrushing and sugar snacking were measured at eight weeks, six months, and 12 months. Results: A higher proportion of Chinese intervention group mothers had improved knowledge about baby toothbrushing at 12 months compared with control group mothers (χ2 = 14.12: p = 0.004). Significantly, more intervention group mothers’ oral health related attitudes were enhanced regarding baby toothbrushing and sugar snacking compared with control group mothers. Conclusion: This community-based oral health education intervention has shown effects in mothers’ self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in the intervention group when the community based and culturally appropriate home-visiting program improved the mothers’ oral health related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.
Highlights
Untreated dental caries has been shown to be the greatest disease burden in the world, with untreated caries of deciduous teeth ranked as the 10th greatest global disease burden [1].As a consequence, children suffer poor oral health and poor quality of life, especially for those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds [2].The association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health outcomes has been well established and it further affected by such factors as ethnicity [3,4]
The study design was a quasi-experimental study with no randomization of the participating
Undocumented migrants are people who are living without a valid residence permit authorizing them to permanently stay in the country in which they are currently residing [21]
Summary
Untreated dental caries has been shown to be the greatest disease burden in the world, with untreated caries of deciduous teeth ranked as the 10th greatest global disease burden [1].As a consequence, children suffer poor oral health and poor quality of life, especially for those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds [2].The association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health outcomes has been well established and it further affected by such factors as ethnicity [3,4]. The oral health education intervention was provided to 19 intervention group mothers through home visits and telephone calls during mothers’ first postpartum year. They were provided with unlimited social support during the intervention period. More intervention group mothers’ oral health related attitudes were enhanced regarding baby toothbrushing and sugar snacking compared with control group mothers. Conclusion: This community-based oral health education intervention has shown effects in mothers’ self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in the intervention group when the community based and culturally appropriate home-visiting program improved the mothers’ oral health related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors
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