Abstract
BackgroundThis study evaluated the impact of anticipatory guidance on the caries incidence of 2–3-year-old preschool children and their 4–6-year-old siblings, as well as on their mothers’ oral health literacy, as compared to the conventional Ministry of Health (MOH) programme.MethodsThis quasi-experimental study was conducted at two government dental clinics in Batu Pahat District, Malaysia. The samples comprised of 478 mother-child-sibling trios (233 families in the intervention group, and 245 families in the control group). An oral health package named the Family Dental Wellness Programme (FDWP) was designed to provide dental examinations and oral health education through anticipatory guidance technique to the intervention group at six-month intervals over 3 years. The control group received the standard MOH oral health education activities. The impact of FDWP on net caries increment, caries prevented fraction, and mother’s oral health literacy was assessed after 3 years of intervention.ResultsChildren and siblings in the intervention group had a significantly lower net caries increment (0.24 ± SD0.8; 0.20 ± SD0.7) compared to the control group (0.75 ± SD1.2; 0.55 ± SD0.9). The caries prevented fraction for FDWP was 68% for the younger siblings and 63.6% for the older children. The 2–3-year-old children in the intervention group had a significantly lower incidence of white spot lesions than their counterpart (12% vs 25%, p < 0.05). At three-year follow-up, there were significant increments in the oral health literacy scores of mothers in the intervention group compared to the control group.ConclusionThe FDWP is more effective than the standard MOH programme in terms of children’s and siblings’ caries incidence and mother’s oral health literacy.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03478748. Registered on March 26th 2018. Retrospectively registered.
Highlights
This study evaluated the impact of anticipatory guidance on the caries incidence of 2–3-year-old preschool children and their 4–6-year-old siblings, as well as on their mothers’ oral health literacy, as compared to the conventional Ministry of Health (MOH) programme
A total of 233 families in the intervention group and 245 families in the control group participated in the study
There were no significant differences between the intervention and control group in terms of socio-demographic variables and caries status at baseline, as the samples for both groups were matched for their individual and family profiles, as well as possible potential confounders
Summary
This study evaluated the impact of anticipatory guidance on the caries incidence of 2–3-year-old preschool children and their 4–6-year-old siblings, as well as on their mothers’ oral health literacy, as compared to the conventional Ministry of Health (MOH) programme. A new initiative is required to achieve the MOH target of having 50% caries-free children by the year 2020 and the Family Dental Wellness Programme (FDWP) was initiated This oral health package that targets both mothers and their young children, comprises of tailor-made OHE messages delivered using anticipatory guidance technique at dental clinics at six-month intervals during a three-year period. This technique which adopts a wellness and self-care concept has been reported to be effective in the developed nations, but has yet to be tested in Malaysia which has a different sociocultural setting
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