Impact of Early Head Start in North Carolina on Dental Care Use Among Children Younger Than 3 Years.

Burgette, Jacqueline M.; Jr, John S. Preisser; Weinberger, Morris; King, Rebecca S.; Lee, Jessica Y.; Rozier, R. Gary

Objectives. To examine the effects of North Carolina Early Head Start (EHS), an early education program for low-income children younger than 3 years and their families, on dental care use among children. Methods. We performed a quasi-experimental study in which we interviewed 479 EHS and 699 non-EHS parent-child dyads at baseline (2010-2012) and at a 24-month followup (2012-2014). We estimated the effects of EHS participation on the probability of having a dental care visit after controlling for baseline dental care need and use and a propensity score covariate; we included random effects to account for EHS program clustering. Results. The odds of having a dental care visit of any type (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.74, 3.48) and having a preventive dental visit (adjusted OR= 2.6; 95% CI = 1.84, 3.63) were higher among EHS children than among non-EHS children. In addition, the adjusted mean number of dental care visits among EHS children was 1.3 times (95% CI = 1.17, 1.55) the mean number among non-EHS children. Conclusions. This study is the first, to our knowledge, to demonstrate that EHS participation increases dental care use among disadvantaged young children.

UNITED States; NORTH Carolina; EARLY Head Start (Program); CHILDREN'S dental care; POOR children; DENTAL care; DYADS; DENTIST-patient relationship; PREVENTIVE dentistry; EARLY childhood education; PREVENTION; DENTAL caries risk factors; DENTAL health education; CHI-squared test; CONFIDENCE intervals; HEAD Start programs; INTERVIEWING; RESEARCH methodology; MEDICAL care use; ORAL hygiene; QUESTIONNAIRES; RESEARCH funding; T-test (Statistics); LOGISTIC regression analysis; EDUCATIONAL outcomes; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; ODDS ratio

American Journal of Public Health, 2017, Vol 107, Issue 4, p614

0090-0036

Academic Journal

10.2105/AJPH.2016.303621