Influence of Community Networks on Oral Health/Behaviors among Hispanics

描述（申请人提供）：在美国的拉丁美洲人通常口腔健康状况不佳。他们的牙科保险覆盖率是所有少数民族中最低的，他们的牙科文化通常与仅仅对疼痛和急性疾病做出反应的行为有关。迄今为止，对拉丁美洲人口腔健康的研究仅限于在个人层面上对一些社会经济和社会文化变量进行表征。在这个R21应用程序中，我们提出了一个新颖的，探索性的研究，一个边界良好的社区网络的人的墨西哥血统。我们的短期目标是探索应用网络科学研究方法的效用，以提高我们对口腔健康行为的理解。我们的具体目标是1)描述社会网络关系的性质和分布，口腔健康风险和保护行为，以及在美国墨西哥裔现有社区网络中使用牙科保健；2)研究社会网络对口腔健康风险和保护行为的影响程度和性质，以及该社区个人牙科保健的利用。这样的基本结构将允许（在未来的项目中）使用相关数据对模型进行对比和改进

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Latinos in the USA often suffer poor oral health. Their dental insurance coverage is the lowest of any minority, and their dental culture is often associated with behaviors that merely react to pain and acute conditions. Studies of oral health among Latinos have hitherto been limited to characterization of a few socio- economic and socio-cultural variables at the individual level. In this R21 application we propose a novel, exploratory study of a well-bounded community network of people of Mexican descent. Our short term objective is to explore the utility of applying network science research methods to improve our understanding of oral health behaviors. Our specific aims are to 1) describe the nature and distribution of social network ties, oral health risk and protective behaviors, and use of dental care within one existing community network of people of Mexican descent in the USA; and 2) examine the extent and nature of social network influence on the oral health risk and protective behavior, and the utilization of dental care of individuals within this community. Such basic structure will allow (in future projects) to contrast and refine the model with data relevant to other regions in the USA or Mexico, other Hispanic groups, other minorities, and/or generate new models. Having clearer knowledge about the factors contributing to better health behaviors will provide a foundation to craft better informed public policy, up-to-date clinical guidelines, culturally sensitive clinical and preventive care, and future research directions. Of particular interest would be to attain a superior understanding of the network structures and ties that may present key entry points to modify the relationships between actors in the community - with emphasis placed among those hubs that would be more influential to effectively disseminate actionable, accurate, and significant health and health care information. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Hispanic dental insurance coverage is the lowest of any minority in the USA, and their dental culture is often associated with behaviors that merely react to pain and acute conditions. There is a need to understand how such behaviors are modulated beyond individual characteristics, by looking into layers of decisions made at the group and community levels. We aim to assemble social networks models to support crafting better informed public policy, up-to-date clinical guidelines, and culturally sensitive clinical and preventive care.