SAPNA Oral Health Project

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请描述了SAPNA口腔健康项目，这是一项基于初级保健的干预措施，旨在改善来自孟加拉国移民社区的幼儿的口腔健康和预防龋齿，这是一个来自南亚的快速增长的移民群体，很少受到研究人员的关注。该项目将在一个新的初级保健研究网络——南亚改善健康和研究实践伙伴关系——中实施。龋齿是影响美国大多数贫困儿童和少数民族儿童的一个问题。南亚移民儿童患龋齿的风险特别高，几乎是当地人口的两倍。各种结构性因素，包括社会和经济剥夺、语言隔离、难以获得口腔保健以及南亚常见的婴儿喂养做法，都是造成这一问题的原因。具体目标包括制定、实施和评估一项基于赋权理论的全面口腔健康试点干预措施，对象是有6-18个月儿童的孟加拉国母亲。所有参与者（n=75）将接受初级保健医生以简短教育信息和口腔健康转诊的形式加强的常规护理。南亚社区卫生导航员（CHNs）将利用强调家庭优势、知识和优先事项的赋权模式，为干预参与者提供两次产妇和家庭咨询支持，随后在进行和保持口腔健康访问方面为患者提供指导支持，并在12个月的研究期间提供3次后续电话支持。该干预措施的制定和评估将涉及初级保健提供者、诊所工作人员、项目团队成员、现场工作人员和患者之间的参与性数据收集，以确保干预措施的可接受性和可行性。如果项目成功，研究人员将申请资金进行SAPNA的正式测试。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application describes the SAPNA Oral Health Project, a primary care based intervention designed to improve oral health and prevent dental caries in young children from the Bangladeshi immigrant community, a fast-growing immigrant group from South Asia that has received little attention from researchers. The project will be implemented in a new primary care research network, SAPPHIRE (South Asian Practice Partnership for Health Improvement and Research). Dental caries is a problem affecting the majority of poor and ethnic minority children in the United States. South Asian immigrant children are at particularly high risk for dental caries with rates nearly double that of native populations. A variety of structural factors, including social and economic deprivation, linguistic isolation, and difficulty accessing oral health care, and common South Asian infant feeding practices contribute to this problem. Specific aims involve the development, implementation and evaluation of a comprehensive oral health pilot intervention, based on Empowerment Theory, directed at Bangladeshi mothers of children aged 6-18 months. All participants (n=75) will receive enhanced usual care in the form of brief educational messages and oral health referrals by the primary care physician. For intervention participants, South Asian Community Health Navigators (CHNs) will provide two sessions of maternal and familial counseling support using an empowerment model that emphasizes the family's strengths, knowledge, and priorities, followed by patient navigation support in making and keeping an oral health visit, and three follow up phone calls to provide support during the twelve month study period. Development and evaluation of this intervention will involve participatory data collection among primary care providers, clinic staff, project team members, field staff, and patients in order to insure the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. If the project is successful, investigators will apply for funds to conduct a formal test of SAPNA. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: South Asians are a rapidly growing group in the United States, but remain understudied. South Asian children experience extremely high rates of childhood caries, due to child feeding practices and oral hygiene, as well as lack of access to oral health care. Culturally appropriate behavioral interventions for South Asians that address childhood caries risk are a vital public health priority. The project described in this application has potential to serve as a model for primary care-community collaborative interventions that can be used in similar culturally and linguistically isolated groups.