Oral Health Intervention for Low-Income African American Men in Atlanta, Georgia.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the Minority Men's Oral Health Dental Access Program (MOHDAP) intervention and report participants' outcomes and satisfaction. METHODS: MOHDAP was designed to increase the oral health knowledge of low-income, African American men in Atlanta, GA, in 2013. A community-based participatory approach and needs assessment guided the intervention development, which consisted of 3 educational modules delivered over a 2-day period. All participants (n = 45; mean age = 50 years) were African American men. We assessed changes in oral health knowledge and attitudes at baseline and postintervention via survey. RESULTS: After the intervention, the percentage of correct responses to questions about gingivitis increased by 24.2% (P = .01), about use of a hard (instead of a soft) toothbrush increased by 42.2% (P < .01), and knowledge of ways to prevent gum diseases increased by 16.0% (P = .03). The percentage agreeing with erroneous statements decreased 11.3% (P = .02) regarding oral health-related fatalism and oral health self-care and 17.4% (P = .05) regarding saving front versus back teeth. CONCLUSIONS: Community-based oral health educational interventions designed for African American men may reduce oral health disparities among this population.

Lessons Learned from Three Models that Use Small Grants for Building Academic-Community Partnerships for Research.

Despite the direct contribution of community-engaged research towards effective translation, establishing strong and sustained community academic research partnerships remains a challenge. The Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute's Community Engagement Research Program (CERP) has developed and implemented three models for using small grants to seed new community academic partnerships for research: 1) community-initiated health projects with faculty partners, 2) dissemination of discoveries to community partners, and 3) building collaborative research capacity. In this paper, we describe each model in terms of its purpose, funding level, funding period, proposal requirements, selection criteria and faculty involvement. Resulting partnerships are described, along with benefits and challenges from faculty and community perspectives, and lessons learned in using these mechanisms to promote community-engaged research. These models may aid others attempting to promote community-engaged research for the purpose of narrowing the gap between research, practice and ultimately, impact on community health.

Women's oral health: growing evidence for enhancing perspectives.

Women's health, including oral health, is an evolving science with foundation knowledge from many disciplines. Key milestones, particularly in the last decade, provide a roadmap towards the necessary inclusion of gender into dental practice. Such focus is especially important for the evolving role of oral health care providers as primary health care providers. Continued progress of the vibrant incorporation of evidence-based women's oral health into the standard practice of oral health care is encouraged. This expanded preface provides an introduction to this DCNA issue, a brief history and timeline of major women's oral health events, and resources for further consideration.

Measuring the process and quality of informed consent for clinical research: development and testing.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To develop and assess the reliability and validity of an observational instrument, the Process and Quality of Informed Consent (P-QIC). DESIGN: A pilot study of the psychometrics of a tool designed to measure the quality and process of the informed consent encounter in clinical research. The study used professionally filmed, simulated consent encounters designed to vary in process and quality. SETTING: A major urban teaching hospital in the northeastern region of the United States. SAMPLE: 63 students enrolled in health-related programs participated in psychometric testing, 16 students participated in test-retest reliability, and 5 investigator-participant dyads were observed for the actual consent encounters. METHODS: For reliability and validity testing, students watched and rated videotaped simulations of four consent encounters intentionally varied in process and content and rated them with the proposed instrument. Test-retest reliability was established by raters watching the videotaped simulations twice. Inter-rater reliability was demonstrated by two simultaneous but independent raters observing an actual consent encounter. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: The essential elements of information and communication for informed consent. FINDINGS: The initial testing of the P-QIC demonstrated reliable and valid psychometric properties in both the simulated standardized consent encounters and actual consent encounters in the hospital setting. CONCLUSIONS: The P-QIC is an easy-to-use observational tool that provides a quick assessment of the areas of strength and areas that need improvement in a consent encounter. It can be used in the initial trainings of new investigators or consent administrators and in ongoing programs of improvement for informed consent. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: The development of a validated observational instrument will allow investigators to assess the consent process more accurately and evaluate strategies designed to improve it.

The potential role of breast-feeding and other factors in helping to reduce early childhood caries.

OBJECTIVES: Dental caries is the most common chronic disease in US children. Early childhood caries (ECC) is particularly virulent and can interfere with a child's ability to eat, grow, speak, and communicate. Studies on whether breast-feeding or bottle-feeding are more likely to reduce ECC have proven inconclusive. METHODS: The study population included 175 children, aged 1 to 5, receiving dental care at the Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital in Atlanta, GA. Participation included a dental exam, chart data abstraction, and a personal interview with the mother. RESULTS: Too few exclusively breast-fed children prevented the adequate study of breast-feeding. However, children exclusively bottle-fed for at least 1.5 years had more decayed or filled tooth surfaces than children breast-fed part of that time but well short of a year. No bottle at night nor juice at irregular times, the mother's brushing of her child's teeth, and adequate dental care in the mother seemed to reduce ECC. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest measures that might reduce ECC risk. Medical providers must discuss oral health with new mothers and educate them on the important role they play in keeping their babies' teeth healthy

Building an academic-community partnership for increasing representation of minorities in the health professions.

We evaluated collaboration among academic and community partners in a program to recruit African American youth into the health professions. Six institutions of higher education, an urban school system, two community organizations, and two private enterprises became partners to create a health career pipeline for this population. The pipeline consisted of 14 subprograms designed to enrich academic science curricula, stimulate the interest of students in health careers, and facilitate entry into professional schools and other graduate-level educational programs. Subprogram directors completed questionnaires regarding a sense of common mission/vision and coordination/collaboration three times during the 3-year project. The partners strongly shared a common mission and vision throughout the duration of the program, although there was some weakening in the last phase. Subprogram directors initially viewed coordination/collaboration as weak, but by midway through the project period viewed it as stronger. Feared loss of autonomy was foremost among several factors that threatened collaboration among the partners. Collaboration was improved largely through a process of building trust among the partners.