scholarly journals Parental Ethnic Identity and Its Influence on Children’s Oral Health in American Indian Families

Author(s):  
Anne R. Wilson ◽  
Rachel L. Johnson ◽  
Judith Albino ◽  
Luohua Jiang ◽  
Sarah J. Schmiege ◽  
...  

Objectives: To examine the relationship between ethnic identity and oral health knowledge, beliefs, behavior, and outcomes in American Indian families. Methods: Secondary data were analyzed for 579 parent–child dyads in a randomized controlled trial aimed at reducing early childhood caries in a Northern Plains tribal community. Data included demographic characteristics; parental ethnic identity; oral health knowledge, beliefs, and behavior; and parental/pediatric oral health outcomes. Ethnic identity was assessed using two measures: perceived importance of tribal identity and tribal language proficiency. We examined the association of baseline ethnic identity with baseline and longitudinal oral health measures. Results: At baseline, importance of tribal identity was significantly associated with several oral health beliefs, and one’s locus of control measure (external-chance). Baseline scores on importance of tribal identity were also associated with one’s oral heath belief (perceived severity), the same locus of control measure, and oral health knowledge and behavior over the three years of study follow up. Tribal language proficiency was not associated with any study measures at baseline, although it was associated with parental oral health status over the three years. Conclusions: Ethnic identity was associated with a range of oral health constructs expected to influence American Indian children’s oral health.

Author(s):  
Angela G. Brega ◽  
Rachel L. Johnson ◽  
Luohua Jiang ◽  
Anne R. Wilson ◽  
Sarah J. Schmiege ◽  
...  

In cross-sectional studies, parental health literacy (HL) is associated with children’s oral health. It is unclear, however, whether HL influences pediatric outcomes. We examined the relationship of HL with change over time in parental oral health knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors, as well as pediatric oral health outcomes. We used longitudinal data from a study designed to reduce dental decay in American Indian children (N = 579). At baseline and annually for three years, parents answered questions assessing HL; oral health knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors; and pediatric oral health status. The number of decayed, missing, and filled tooth surfaces (dmfs) was computed based on annual dental evaluations. Linear mixed models showed that HL was significantly associated with all constructs, except dmfs, at their reference time points and persistently across the three-year study period. HL predicted change over time in only one variable, parents’ belief that children’s oral health is determined by chance or luck. HL is strongly associated with oral health knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, and status prospectively but is not a key driver of change over time in these oral health constructs.


Author(s):  
Angela G Brega ◽  
Rachel L Johnson ◽  
Sarah J Schmiege ◽  
Anne R Wilson ◽  
Luohua Jiang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Health literacy (HL) is the “ability to find, understand, evaluate and put information to use to improve decision making and, ultimately, improve health and quality of life.” Parents with limited HL are less likely to follow recommended parental oral health behaviors. Purpose We tested a theoretical framework designed to clarify mechanisms through which HL may influence parental oral health behavior. The framework proposed that HL: (a) has a direct effect on parental oral health knowledge, beliefs (i.e. self-efficacy; perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers), and behavior; (b) influences beliefs indirectly through knowledge; and (c) influences behavior indirectly through knowledge and beliefs. Methods We analyzed cross-sectional data from a randomized controlled trial designed to reduce dental decay in American Indian children (N = 521). Parents completed survey questions assessing sociodemographic characteristics, HL, and parental oral health knowledge, beliefs, and behavior. Path analysis was used to test the framework. Results HL exerted significant direct effects on knowledge and beliefs but not behavior. HL had significant indirect effects on all beliefs through knowledge. Significant indirect effects of HL on behavior occurred through self-efficacy (estimate: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.42, 1.83, p = .005), perceived barriers (estimate: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.29, 1.43, p = .010), knowledge to self-efficacy (estimate: 0.57, 95% CI: .31, 0.98, p = .001), and knowledge to perceived barriers (estimate: 0.24, 95% CI: 0.09, 0.47, p = .012). Conclusions HL exerted an indirect effect on parental oral health behavior, with knowledge, self-efficacy, and perceived barriers being the primary constructs linking HL to behavior.


Medicina ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Siddharthan Selvaraj ◽  
Nyi Nyi Naing ◽  
Nadiah Wan-Arfah ◽  
Mohmed Isaqali Karobari ◽  
Anand Marya ◽  
...  

Background and objectives: The Indian population faces numerous challenges to attain better oral hygiene due to a lack of oral health literacy. For the past 10 years, the prevalence of dental-related conditions in India has become a considerable problem in every state of India. A health-education-based oral health promotion strategy will be an ideal choice for the Indian population instead of endorsing conventional oral health promotion. The use of unsuitable tools to measure may lead to misleading and vague findings that might result in a flawed plan for cessation programs and deceitful effectiveness. Therefore, the research aimed to develop and validate an instrument that can assess the oral health knowledge, attitude and behavior (KAB) of adults in India. Materials and Methods: This study was carried among adults in India, who live in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. A questionnaire was fabricated and then validated using content, face, as well as construct. The knowledge domain was validated using item response theory analysis (IRT), whereas exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to validate the behavior domain and attitude. Results: Four principal sections, i.e., knowledge, attitude, demography and behavior, were used to fabricate a questionnaire following validation. Following analysis of item response theory on the knowledge domain, all analyzed items in the domain were within the ideal range of difficulty and discrimination. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.65 for the attitude and 0.66 for the behavior domain. A Bartlett’s test of sphericity was conducted and demonstrated that outcomes for both domains were highly significant (p < 0.001). The factor analysis resulted in three factors with a total of eight items in the attitude domain and three factors with a total of seven items in the behavior domain depicting satisfactory factor loading (>0.3). Across the three factors, i.e., knowledge, attitude and behavior, internal consistency reliability was tested using Cronbach’s alpha, and the values obtained were 0.67, 0.87, 0.67, and 0.88, respectively. Conclusions: The findings of this study that assessed validity and reliability showed that the developed questionnaire had an acceptable psychometric property for measuring oral health KAB among adults in India.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela G. Brega ◽  
Luohua Jiang ◽  
Rachel L. Johnson ◽  
Anne R. Wilson ◽  
Sarah J. Schmiege ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-23
Author(s):  
G Manjunath ◽  
NN Kumar

ABSTRACT Introduction Teacher plays pivotal role in any educational system and if they are well educated, intellectually alive and take keen interest in their job, then only success is ensured. Present study was done with an aim to know the knowledge, attitude and practices among school teachers regarding oral health. Methods Closed ended questionnaire was filled by 500 school teachers chosen by stratified random sampling. Results Response rate is 100 % with 250 school teachers from Govt and privates schools. No statistical significant results were found based on age, sex, type of school and income when it comes to knowledge and attitude, but statistical significance was found based on income (p<0.05) when compared with behavior of school teachers with better practices on oral health seen as the monthly income increases. Conclusion Overall oral health knowledge attitude and behavior is poor among school teachers


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Syarifah Haizan Sayed Kamar ◽  
Noor Inani Jelani ◽  
Noraini Mohamad Nor

Introduction: Mothers play important roles in their children's oral health. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between mothers’ sociodemographic backgrounds and their oral health knowledge, attitude and practice of their preschool children. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 149 mothers of 4 to 6-year-old preschool children from selected kindergartens. Stratified cluster sampling was done to select kindergartens from urban and suburban areas in Kuantan, Pahang. Knowledge and attitude of mothers were assessed using selfadministered questionnaires and children's oral health practice was recorded using three days tooth brushing diary. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Results: Mothers had high oral health knowledge (Mean score 73.6%, SD 1.3%) and attitude (Mean score 73.2%, SD 2.4%) scores. Significant relationships were reported between mothers' oral health knowledge and age (p=0.037), educational status (p0.05). Conclusion(s): Lack of further education, low household income and living further away from the city contributed to low oral health knowledge and poor oral health attitude among mothers, towards their preschool children. Younger mothers had lower oral health knowledge, whereas older mothers had poorer oral health attitude.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document