Center for Research to Evaluate & Eliminate Dental Disparities

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Northeast Center for Research to Evaluate & Eliminate Dental Disparities (CREEDD) is committed to the elimination of oral health disparities through research, training and action. Our efforts will build on a strong foundation of early and continuous community engagement, community-based research interventions, integrated training and career development, broad dissemination of research findings, and targeted health policy initiatives. Based at Boston University, the CREEDD will maintain its current regional approach, with partnering institutions in Massachusetts, Maryland and Ohio. A diverse, multidisciplinary and multi-institutional team will implement community-based intervention research projects aimed at reducing early childhood caries (ECC). Our organizing theme is engaging non-dental care providers in oral health promotion, and extending the venues for oral health promotion to non-clinical care settings directly in health disparity communities. The two major community-based intervention research projects will be: Project #1 (D&IR Project) - Partnering with Community Health Centers to Prevent ECC (D&IR Project) Physician-delivered interventions, targeted at children aged 1 to 3 years old, with include fluoride varnish applications, patient-centered counseling, and systems-level changes to clinical information systems and clinical prompts used in order to include age-appropriate, oral health-specific anticipatory guidance items. Project #2 - Oral Health Advocates in Public Housing Resident Health Advocates (RHA), trained peer health advocates, will incorporate motivational interviewing and community oral health promotion activities into their ongoing health promotion efforts targeting caregivers with children from birth to 5 yrs old, aimed at caries risk reduction and lowering incidence of ECC. We will use a community-based cluster randomized study design, in Project #1 with community health centers (CHC) as the unit of randomization, with CHC located in Boston, Maryland, and southeastern Ohio; and in Project #2 with individual public housing developments in Boston as the unit of randomization.