| Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is a serious and multifactorial dental disease observed in low-income children in the United States who generally have limited access to dental services. Prevention of ECC should entail various approaches, including educational interventions. This study investigated the efficacy of three psychoeducational interventions in the prevention of ECC among low-income toddlers enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program in Linn County, Iowa. One hundred and fifteen mother-child dyads were randomly assigned to one of three psychoeducational intervention groups at baseline. The psychoeducational components of Groups I and II consisted of videotaped oral health presentations, while Group III a brochure. Self-Determination Theory provided the theoretical support for the psychoeducational intervention of Group I to facilitate motivation through people's three innate psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Additional research objectives were: (1) to examine whether mothers exposed to an autonomous, controlling or neutral message demonstrated changes in self-reported knowledge, intention and behavior toward their child's oral health; and (2) to determine the extent to which their child presented with positive oral health outcomes, such as low Streptococcus mutans levels and incisor plaque scores. Eighty-six dyads participated to study completion (74.8% retention rate). Final power for the study was .50. Results showed statistically significant improvements for the three groups across time in mothers' self-reported knowledge, intention and important behaviors closely linked to ECC prevention (increase in child's daily toothbrushing and use of fluoridated toothpaste, improvement in child's sippy-cup's content, and a decrease in child's frequency of daily snacks, mothers' habit of kissing their children on the mouth and the children's Streptococcus mutans levels). However, no statistically significant differences were found in most of these variables when the three groups were compared. Future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to better investigate the most appropriate educational approach for ECC prevention among WIC clients. |
