IADR Abstract Archives
Parents’ Education Influences their Reports of Children’s Oral Health Status
Objectives: Parents are responsible for their young children’s oral health and care and their perceptions of their children's oral health status (OHS) are crucial as they can influence oral health-related behaviors and dental care-seeking. Our objectives were to a) quantify the correlation between parents’ assessments and their children's clinically-determined oral health status, and b) investigate parent demographic characteristics possibly influencing this association.
Methods: We used parent reported and clinically-assessed information for oral health status among a community-based sample of 6,404 children (mean age=53 months) enrolled in Head Start centers in North Carolina and participating in an epidemiologic study of early childhood oral health (ZOE 2.0). Children’s OHS was reported by parents on a five-level scale: “excellent”, “very good”, “good”, “fair”, “poor”. Children’s clinical diagnosis [i.e., early childhood caries (ECC)] was based upon clinical examination data obtained by trained and calibrated examiners using visual criteria—ECC was defined as ICDAS>2. The agreement between reported and clinically-assessed oral health status was estimated using Spearman’s rank correlation (rho) and Kendall tau c (τc) coefficient, and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were obtained with bootstrapping.
Results: Most parents reported their children’s OHS as very good (n=2,507, 31%) or good (n=2,439, 31%), with only 15% reporting it as fair/poor. Overall, there was a significant correlation between parents’ reports and ECC (rho=0.39; 95% CI=0.37-0.41; τc=0.43): ECC prevalence among those with ‘poor’ OHS was 95% versus 29% among those with ‘excellent’. Parents’ Hispanic ethnicity did not modify this association. However, parental education was significantly associated with the level of agreement between reported and clinically-assessed OHS: less than high school education--(rho=0.30; 95% CI=0.25-0.35; τc=0.32) versus high school education or more (rho=0.40; 95% CI=0.37-0.42; τc=0.44).
Conclusions: These results suggest that low parental education, beyond itself being a risk factor for ECC, is associated with parents’ diminished potential to recognize or report it.
Methods: We used parent reported and clinically-assessed information for oral health status among a community-based sample of 6,404 children (mean age=53 months) enrolled in Head Start centers in North Carolina and participating in an epidemiologic study of early childhood oral health (ZOE 2.0). Children’s OHS was reported by parents on a five-level scale: “excellent”, “very good”, “good”, “fair”, “poor”. Children’s clinical diagnosis [i.e., early childhood caries (ECC)] was based upon clinical examination data obtained by trained and calibrated examiners using visual criteria—ECC was defined as ICDAS>2. The agreement between reported and clinically-assessed oral health status was estimated using Spearman’s rank correlation (rho) and Kendall tau c (τc) coefficient, and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were obtained with bootstrapping.
Results: Most parents reported their children’s OHS as very good (n=2,507, 31%) or good (n=2,439, 31%), with only 15% reporting it as fair/poor. Overall, there was a significant correlation between parents’ reports and ECC (rho=0.39; 95% CI=0.37-0.41; τc=0.43): ECC prevalence among those with ‘poor’ OHS was 95% versus 29% among those with ‘excellent’. Parents’ Hispanic ethnicity did not modify this association. However, parental education was significantly associated with the level of agreement between reported and clinically-assessed OHS: less than high school education--(rho=0.30; 95% CI=0.25-0.35; τc=0.32) versus high school education or more (rho=0.40; 95% CI=0.37-0.42; τc=0.44).
Conclusions: These results suggest that low parental education, beyond itself being a risk factor for ECC, is associated with parents’ diminished potential to recognize or report it.
