A Pilot Study of Changes in Environmental Knowledge and Behaviors among Head Start Employees and Parents Following Environmental Health Training in Webb County, TX

Objective Health education interventions during pregnancy can influence maternal oral health (OH), maternal OH-behaviors and children’s OH. Interventions that can be delivered at anytime and anywhere, for example mobile-health (mHealth) provides an opportunity to address challenges of health education and support activation of women in underserved and rural communities to modify their health behavior. This pilot study was undertaken as a part of a mHealth initiative to determine knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to pregnancy and ECC prevention among women attending obstetrics/gynecology (OB/GYN) practices at a large rurally-based clinic. Methods A cross-sectional survey study was voluntarily engaged by women (n = 191) aged 18 to 59 years attending OB/GYN visits, over a 3-week period from 12/2019 to 1/2020. Survey results were analyzed applying descriptive statistics, X2 and Fisher’s Exact tests. The significance level was set at P < .0001 for all analyses. Results Approximately half of respondents were between 18 and 29 years (53%), had a college degree (55%), and 100% reported cell phone use. Whereas 53% and 31%, respectively, indicated that they were “somewhat” or “very” sure of how to prevent ECC in their children, only 9% recognized evidence of early decay and 30% did not know the purpose of fluoride. Overall, only 27% of participants correctly answered the knowledge-based questions. Further, only 57% reported their provider explained things in a way that was easy to understand. Only 24% reported seeing a dentist during their current pregnancy. Conclusions Study results suggested potential gaps in knowledge and behaviors related to ECC prevention and provided baseline data to inform future interventions to improve ECC prevention practices. Notably, majority of participants used their cell phones for making medical/dental appointments and reported using their phones to look up health-related information. This demographic represents a potentially receptive target for mHealth approaches to improve understanding of oral health maintenance during pregnancy and ECC prevention.

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Differences in eating and body-related attitudes, beliefs and behaviors among female graduate students in nutrition and dietetics and naturopathic medicine: a pilot study

Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia Bulimia and Obesity ◽

10.1007/s40519-017-0360-6 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 383-387

Author(s):

Cristen Harris

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Graduate Students ◽

Naturopathic Medicine ◽

And Behaviors ◽

Nutrition And Dietetics

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Patient navigation for depressed mothers in Head Start: A pilot study of intervention mechanism

Journal of Community Psychology ◽

10.1002/jcop.21861 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 45 (4) ◽

pp. 564-570

Author(s):

Michael Silverstein ◽

Yaminette Diaz-Linhart ◽

Nancy Grote ◽

Lynn Cadena ◽

Howard Cabral ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Head Start ◽

Patient Navigation ◽

Depressed Mothers ◽

Intervention Mechanism

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Advancing Environmental Health Literacy: Validated Scales of General Environmental Health and Environmental Media-Specific Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16214157 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (21) ◽

pp. 4157 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Lichtveld ◽

Covert ◽

Sherman ◽

Shankar ◽

Wickliffe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Factor Analysis ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Environmental Health ◽

Factor Structure ◽

Model Fit ◽

Community Members ◽

Attitudes And Behaviors ◽

Environmental Health Literacy ◽

And Behaviors ◽

Three Factor

Environmental health literacy (EHL) involves understanding and using environmental information to make decisions about health. This study developed a validated survey instrument with four scales for assessing media-specific (i.e., air, food, water) and general EHL. The four scales were created as follows: 1) item generation: environmental health scientists and statisticians developed an initial set of items in three domains: knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; 2) item review: items were reviewed for face validity; 3) validation: 174 public health students, the exploratory sample, and 98 community members, the test sample, validated the scales. The scales’ factor structure was based on exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and model fit was assessed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). For each scale, the final EFA resulted in an independent three-factor solution for knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Good fit for the three-factor structure was observed. Model fit for CFA was generally confirmed with fit indices. The scales showed internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha from 0.63 to 0.70. The 42-item instrument represents an important contribution towards assessing EHL and is designed to enable meaningful engagement between researchers and community members about environmental health. The intended outcome is sustained community–academic partnerships benefiting research design, implementation, translation, dissemination, and community action.

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