BRIDGING SOCIO-CULTURAL BOUNDARIES IN ORAL HEALTH

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The broad, long-term objective of this project is to increase cultural competency in a wide array of dental providers using a web-based tool (EthnoDent). Washington state's population, in addition to the United States, is becoming increasingly diverse in its' ethnic and racial makeup. Between 1995 and 2025, international migration will bring to-Washington state an additional 394,000 people (Campbell, 1996). The U.S. culture is becoming more heterogeneous with the influx of many minority cultures who have their own beliefs and traditions and may only share one commonality of living in the same country - poorer oral health status (Brookins, 1993; Ahmann, 1994). Low-income and minority populations in the U.S. have benefited less than other groups in spite of advances in knowledge of oral health diseases such as childhood caries (Seow, 1998; Milnes, 1996). As the population's diversity increases, providers will care for multi-cultural patients who may not attribute the same traditions or meanings for health and illness. Underlying traditions and values arising from cultures may govern the group's perceived meaning of health, illness and approach to curing. An inability to communicate cross-culturally may impair health professionals' effectiveness at providing the most appropriate care to patients, potentially affecting patient adherence. The current project proposes to develop a web-based tool (EthnoDent) which will focus on reducing cultural barriers between providers and multi-cultural patients in the area of children's oral health. The specific aims of the proposed study are; 1) To qualitatively describe the Native American/Alaska Native (NA/AN), Asian/Pacific Islander (A/PI), and Latino/Hispanic (L/H) cultures (i.e., traditions, beliefs/values, practices) with respect to children's oral health. 2) To develop a web-based tool (EthnoDent) based on the collected information, which will contain information about the cultures, their languages, beliefs, traditions, and practices with respect to children's oral health. 3) To describe the user profiles of EthnoDent and manage the evolution of system changes based on feedback from these profiles. 4) To determine whether dental providers' (e.g., first-year dental students, dental assistant and dental hygiene students) knowledge and cultural competency is increased with the use of EthnoDent The long-term vision of this project is to reduce disparities in children's oral health through enhancing the providers' attitudes and skills in communicating with multi-cultural families.