Child oral health risk factors in non-English speaking families

Introduction: Despite being preventable, Early Childhood Caries is the most common chronic disease of early childhood. A better understanding of the role socio-cultural, environmental and demographic factors play in the development of the disease is paramount to providing direction for upstream interventions to prevent the disease. Objective: To examine factors associated with poor oral health and the variation of these factors with non-English speaking status. Methods: As part of the VicGeneration birth cohort study, 465 mothers of newborn babies completed a baseline questionnaire exploring a range of socio-cultural, environmental and demographic factors related to child and maternal oral health. Logistic regression methods were employed to examine univariate associations between self-reported maternal oral health status and putative risk factors, with adjustment for child age and socioeconomic status. Results: Mothers ranged in age from 17 years to 44 years and 65% of mothers resided in urban areas with the remainder residing in rural (24%) or regional centres (11%). Thirty-five percent of mothers reported they were not born in Australia with SE Asia and Southern/Central Asia the most commonly reported regions of birth. Approximately 38% possessed a healthcare card. The mean age of children was 8 weeks (49% female). Compared with English speakers, non-English speaking mothers were less likely to be aware of the role of fluoride in the prevention of decay, less likely to follow some child oral health hygiene practices, and had a lower level of confidence in their ability to solve or manage their child's oral health well. These differences remained after adjusting for socio-economic position and maternal and child age. Conclusions: Non English speaking mothers face considerable disadvantage in awareness of oral health hygiene and practices and confidence in addressing their child's oral health issues. Oral health programs need to be structured to meet the needs of this community.