Selection Preference For Caries Prevention Services In Children

Objective The study aims to determine the relative importance of different attributes in service options by understanding the impact of different attributes on parents’ choice of caries prevention services for children aged 3-12 years to clarify parents’ preferences for children’s caries prevention services.It provides reference suggestions for optimizing children’s caries prevention programs,improving the rate of children’s caries prevention services,and promoting the development of children’s oral intervention programsMethods This study was based on the Discrete Selection Experimental Method(DCE),and the properties and levels in the study were determined after multiple rounds of expert consultation and literature review.The study design was performed using D-efficiency in software Ngenel1.2,and 8 formal selection sets were determined by random combination.The questionnaire survey was conducted from July 2021 ～ January 202 from the southern,central and northern parts of Anhui Province7 Parents of children aged 3-12 who visited the stomatology department of the hospital in the city conducted an on-site survey.The data for this study were entered using Excel 2019 software and statistical analysis with the help of Stata17.0,using conditional logit regression models and hybrids The logit regression model assessed the choice preference and heterogeneity of parents of school-age children for caries prevention services.Results 1.The study ultimately included four study attributes(duration of preventive service,preventive effect,distance from point of service,and cost per tooth).2.A total of 785 parents of children were surveyed,5 2.23% were mothers,and 5 1.34% had a bachelor’s degree or above.74.01% of the children had dental caries,and 75.32% of the children had not done fluoride or pit and fissure closure.3.The results showed that the four attributes of prevention service time,prevention effect,distance from service point and average tooth cost were statistically significant.The four attributes included in this study had a significant impact on the choice of preventive services for parents of children.Parents prefer to choose prevention programs with very good prevention effect,close distance to service points and low cost during winter and summer vacations.4.Parents of children considered the prevention effect to be the most important of the four attributes(67.3%),followed by prevention time(11.4%)and distance from service points(10.9).%,per tooth cost(10.4%)5 The results showed that in order to improve the prevention effect from slightly poor to average,good and very good,parents were willing to pay an extra 1 66.2 yuan,261.1 yuan and 409.1 yuan respectively.6.Parents’ level of education,sex,assessment of children’s dental health,and children’s age were all sources of heterogeneity.Conclusions and Recommendations The discrete selection experiment method can effectively measure the preference of parents of school-age children to choose caries prevention services.Prevention effect is the primary attribute influencing children’s parents’ choice of prevention service plan,and prevention service time,service point distance and average tooth cost are important influencing factors.There was heterogeneity among parents of children,and female parents with high education levels were more willing to take their children to participate in caries prevention.After the age of 6 or the worse the dental health of the child,the less willing parents are to take their children to participate in prevention.In giving a prevention plan,dental professionals should combine the oral health status of each child and their parents’ choice preferences,so as to improve the utilization rate and compliance of children’s caries prevention services.It is important to improve the prevention effect,reduce the cost of prevention per tooth,improve the service points that are relatively close to the service,and provide preventive services during the winter and summer holidays to improve the compliance of parents in bringing their children to the hospital.In addition,it is recommended to continuously improve the technology and effect of dental caries prevention and treatment,improve the operational skills of oral medical staff,increase the pilot of oral intervention projects during holidays,and promote comprehensive prevention and treatment of dental caries in hospitals and communities Achieve accurate oral health education according to the heterogeneity of population preferences.