Parental Compliance towards Oral Health Education among Preschoolers with Special Healthcare Needs.

Ni Zhou,Colman Patrick Mcgrath,Hai Ming Wong

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147323

Ni Zhou, Colman Patrick Mcgrath + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147323

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Abstract

Background: Young children with special needs greatly rely on their parents to support their daily living activities; parental compliance may have great impact on the implementation of health promotion activities among those children. This study aimed to investigate the parental compliance towards oral health education (OHE) among children with special healthcare needs (SHCN). Method: The participants were 306 parents whose children had participated in a 24-month OHE program for preschool children with SHCN. The primary outcome of this cross-sectional study was parental compliance towards the OHE program. Parents’ oral health literacy (OHL) was assessed by a validated tool. Parents’ socioeconomic status, attitudes towards OHE topics, perceptions of children’s oral hygiene status, and usefulness of OHE materials were collected via questionnaires. Results: A higher dropout rate was observed among parents who perceived that their children had unfavorable oral hygiene status (p = 0.038), or parents who had poor OHL skills (p = 0.015). Parental noncompliance was more likely to be observed among parents who perceived that the OHE materials were not useful for their children (OR = 3.63, 95% CI 1.56 to 8.47, p = 0.003), or parents whose children had been diagnosed with developmental delays (OR = 5.45, 95% CI 1.59 to18.74, p = 0.007). Conclusion: Non-compliance existed among parents whose children had received OHE intervention. Parental compliance towards OHE intervention might be associated with parents’ OHL skills, usefulness of OHE materials, and children’s developmental conditions. OHE programs should be individually tailored to support children whose parents are at a higher risk of noncompliant behaviors.

Highlights

Published: 8 July 2021Children with special healthcare needs (SHCN) typically require additional health services, as they are “at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition” [1]
This study aimed to investigate parental compliance towards oral health education (OHE) activities for preschool children with SHCN
The main findings implied that parental compliance could be affected by parents’ oral health literacy (OHL) skills, attitudes towards the OHE topics, perceptions of usefulness of the health education materials, as well as their children’s developmental conditions

Summary

Introduction

Published: 8 July 2021Children with special healthcare needs (SHCN) typically require additional health services, as they are “at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition” [1]. Existing evidence suggests that promoting appropriate oral healthrelated behaviors among children with SHCN could improve their oral health status, and dentists are recommended to provide oral health education (OHE) to parents of children with SHCN [2,3,5,6]. In a web-based health education project, the researchers elucidated that high parental compliance, i.e., the extent to which the parent’s behavior coincides with the advice of the health worker, can result in desirable outcomes [8]. This study aimed to investigate the parental compliance towards oral health education (OHE) among children with special healthcare needs (SHCN). Results: A higher dropout rate was observed among parents who perceived that their children had unfavorable oral hygiene status (p = 0.038), or parents who had poor OHL skills (p = 0.015).

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