Involving children with additional support needs in oral health research

Objectives: To determine whether children with additional support needs could communicate their oral health knowledge and dental anxiety via a simplified questionnaire format, using a similar parental questionnaire as a proxy. Method: 210 parents of children with additional support needs attending ten schools in one Scottish Health Board area were asked to take part in the study. Parents completed the Child Fear Survey Schedule–Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) and questions regarding their children's oral health knowledge. School staff distributed questionnaires via children's school bags to parents. Their children were later asked to complete a simplified questionnaire which included measures of their oral health knowledge and dental anxiety. Knowledge was assessed by asking how many times a day and for how long children should brush their teeth and their knowledge of healthy foods and drinks. Pictures were used to aid children's understanding. Dental anxiety was assessed using the modified child dental anxiety scale (faces) (MCDASf). The questionnaire was administered to all children in the classroom setting by school staff. Results: Forty-seven completed parent-child dyad were returned. Correlation analysis revealed that parental ratings of children's anxiety, and children's own ratings, were positively correlated at a level just below statistical significance (r=0.29, P=0.054). Correspondence between parent and child scores was more accurate for those children who had experience of invasive dental treatment (r=0.53, P=0.04), compared with children with no experience of this (r=0.38, P=0.10). Parents' ratings of children's oral health knowledge were positively correlated with children's actual knowledge at a highly significant level (r=0.43, P=0.003). Conclusion: Children with complex and additional support needs can communicate their oral health knowledge well using a simplified questionnaire format. Ratings of their own dental anxiety correlate well with parental ratings when children have experience of invasive dental treatment.(External funding: Action for Sick Children (Scotland): Grant number 121.810927)