Development and Feasibility Testing of CATCH Healthy Smiles, an Oral Health Promotion Intervention for Prevention of Dental Caries Among Elementary School Children

Food deserts and dental care utilization in the United States

OBJECTIVES

Although food deserts are known to impact health and healthcare utilization, no research has investigated the relationship between food deserts and dental care utilization. This study aimed to fill this gap by assessing the relationship between living in a food desert and self-reported dental care utilization in the past year.

METHODS

Data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 10,495). The association between food deserts and dental care utilization was assessed using covariate-adjusted multiple logistic regression.

RESULTS

Living in a food desert was associated with higher odds of not utilizing dental care in the past year. This association was concentrated among high-poverty areas (≥20% poverty rate).

CONCLUSIONS

The current study is the first to assess the relationship between living in a food desert and dental care utilization. The findings demonstrate that individuals living in low-income urban food deserts may be at increased risk for not utilizing dental care.

Design for a cluster randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effects of the CATCH Healthy Smiles school-based oral health promotion intervention among elementary school children

Background

The top two oral diseases (tooth decay and gum disease) are preventable, yet dental caries is the most common childhood disease with 68% of children entering kindergarten having tooth decay. CATCH Healthy Smiles is a coordinated school health program to prevent cavities for students in kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade, and is based on the framework of Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH), an evidence-based coordinated school health program. CATCH has undergone several cluster-randomized controlled trials (CRCT) demonstrating sustainable long-term effectiveness in incorporating the factors surrounding children, in improving eating and physical activity behaviors, and reductions in obesity prevalence among low-income, ethnically diverse children. The aim of this paper is to describe the design of the CATCH Healthy Smiles CRCT to determine the effectiveness of an oral health school-based behavioral intervention in reducing incidence of dental caries among children.

Methods

In this CRCT, 30 schools serving low-income, ethnically-diverse children in greater Houston area are recruited and randomized into intervention and comparison groups. From which, 1020 kindergarten children (n = 510 children from 15 schools for each group) will be recruited and followed through 2nd grade. The intervention consists of four components (classroom curriculum, toothbrushing routine, family outreach, and schoolwide coordinated activities) will be implemented for three years in the intervention schools, whereas the control schools will be offered free trainings and materials to implement a sun safety curriculum in the meantime. Outcome evaluation will be conducted at four time points throughout the study period, each consists of three components: dental assessment, child anthropometric measures, and parent survey. The dental assessment will use International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) to measures the primary outcome of this study: incidence of dental caries in primary teeth as measured at the tooth surface level (dfs). The parent self-report survey measures secondary outcomes of this study, such as oral health related behavioral and psychosocial factors. A modified crude caries increment (mCCI) will be used to calculate the primary outcome of the CATCH Healthy Smiles CRCT, and a two-tailed test of the null hypothesis will be conducted to evaluate the intervention effect, while considering between- and within-cluster variances through computing the weighted-average of the mCCI ratios by cluster.

Conclusion

If found to be effective, a platform for scalability, sustainability and dissemination of CATCH already exists, and opens a new line of research in school oral health.

Clinical trials identifier

At ClinicalTrials.gov - NCT04632667.