Family Intervention With Caregivers of Children With Dental Needs

The study is a multi-site, double blind, parallel arm, community-based randomized controlled trial (phase III RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of new referral approaches to increase receipt of dental care among inner-city urban and rural elementary school children who were screened at school and have restorative treatment needs. The study has 5 arms: The experimental intervention is the use of a theoretically driven CSM referral letter alone, the letter plus a Dental Information Guide, a reduced CSM referral letter alone, or a reduced CSM referral letter plus a reduced Dental Information Guide. The control strategy is the use of a standard referral letter. All participating K-4 grade children will receive a screening at the beginning of the school year and at the study end point 7 months later to determine if the child received dental care. Due to lower than expected enrollment in both the Ohio and Washington sites, a second year of recruitment was added to include Bedford School District and East Cleveland School District (only KG and other grades if they did not enroll in the first year). The same study procedures, schedule and design was utilized for the second year of recruitment.

The primary aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of experimental (new) versus standard referral approach given to parents/caregivers in increasing receipt of dental care among their children in grades K-4. The secondary aim is to assess changes in parent/caregiver illness representation/perception and behavioral intention between enrollment (beginning of school year) and follow-up (end of school year) to understand the underlying mechanisms of the new vs. standard referral approach that result in receipt of dental care.

The hypothesis is that CSM-based interventions will increase receipt of dental care compared to the standard referral letter.