IADR Abstract Archives
A Qualitative Analysis of Community Perceptions of Fluoridated Tap Water
Objectives: Dental caries remains the most common childhood disease despite numerous public health efforts to mitigate its incidence. Community tap water fluoridation is one of the top ten greatest public health achievements of the last century. Unfortunately, dental caries continues to disproportionately affect minority and economically disadvantaged children. One factor potentially contributing to this disparity could be decreased selection of fluoridated tap water as parents’ choice of beverage for their children. Our research aim was to examine community perceptions around tap water safety and drinking water preferences in an urban under-resourced community.
Methods: This project was part of a larger sequential mixed-methods study examining the health inequities, healthcare utilization, along with barriers and supports to families’ health-related needs. The first qualitative phase related to water equity was performed with key informant interviews (n = 7) of community members’ knowledge about local water supplies, barriers to accessing clean water and healthy foods, and potential community perceptions. Interviews were conducted virtually, transcribed, combined, coded and sorted by content, and analyzed for themes.
Results: Several important themes were highlighted throughout the analysis, which will be used to guide future interviews and quantitative surveys conducted within the community. While access to information about local tap water safety was noted to be unavailable, social media was most commonly referenced as a potential source of information leading to distrust of tap water. Inconsistency was noted, though, in themes surrounding the level of thought that parents put into their beverage choices, with mistrust and ambivalence being the two most commonly referenced sentiments.
Conclusions: Additional research is necessary to identify levels of consciousness parents have about their tap water, and how engagement with social media may be used to motivate selection of community tap water as parents’ primary choice of beverage for their children.
Methods: This project was part of a larger sequential mixed-methods study examining the health inequities, healthcare utilization, along with barriers and supports to families’ health-related needs. The first qualitative phase related to water equity was performed with key informant interviews (n = 7) of community members’ knowledge about local water supplies, barriers to accessing clean water and healthy foods, and potential community perceptions. Interviews were conducted virtually, transcribed, combined, coded and sorted by content, and analyzed for themes.
Results: Several important themes were highlighted throughout the analysis, which will be used to guide future interviews and quantitative surveys conducted within the community. While access to information about local tap water safety was noted to be unavailable, social media was most commonly referenced as a potential source of information leading to distrust of tap water. Inconsistency was noted, though, in themes surrounding the level of thought that parents put into their beverage choices, with mistrust and ambivalence being the two most commonly referenced sentiments.
Conclusions: Additional research is necessary to identify levels of consciousness parents have about their tap water, and how engagement with social media may be used to motivate selection of community tap water as parents’ primary choice of beverage for their children.