Established Evidence Results

Intervention Components (click on component to see a list of all articles that use that intervention): CLASSROOM_SCHOOL, Early Head Start

Intervention Description: Authors performed a quasi-experimental study, interviewing 479 EHS and 699 non-EHS parent-child dyads at baseline (2010-2012) and at a 24-month follow-up (2012-2014). Researchers estimated the effects of EHS participation on the probability of having a dental care visit after controlling for baseline dental care need and use and a propensity score covariate; random effects to account for EHS program clustering were included.

Intervention Results: The odds of having a dental care visit of any type (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.74, 3.48) and having a preventive dental visit (adjusted OR = 2.6;95% CI = 1.84, 3.63) were higher among EHS children than among non-EHS children. In addition, the adjusted mean number of dental care visits among EHS children was 1.3 times (95% CI = 1.17, 1.55) the mean number among non-EHS children.

Conclusion: This study is the first, to our knowledge, to demonstrate that EHS participation increases dental care use among disadvantaged young children.

Setting: Community

Population of Focus: Low-income children younger than 3 years and their families

Intervention Components (click on component to see a list of all articles that use that intervention): CLASSROOM_SCHOOL, Early Head Start

Intervention Description: Researchers compared children enrolled in North Carolina EHS programs with similar children enrolled in Medicaid but not EHS on the use of preventive oral health services (POHS). They analyzed 4 dependent variables (oral assessment by medical health care provider, oral assessment by oral health care provider, fluoride application by medical health care provider, fluoride application by oral health care provider) by using multivariate logistic regression that controlled for covariates.

Intervention Results: Primary caregivers of children enrolled in EHS (n = 479) and Medicaid (n = 699) were interviewed when children were approximately 10 and 36 months of age. An average of 81% of EHS and non-EHS children received POHS from an oral or medical health care provider at follow-up. EHS children had greater odds of receiving an oral health assessment (odds ratio [OR], 2.33; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.74 to 3.13) and fluoride (OR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.16 to 2.03) from an oral health care provider than children not enrolled. EHS children had decreased odds (OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.99) of receiving fluoride from a medical health care provider.

Conclusion: Both children enrolled in EHS and community control participants had high rates of POHS, but the source of services differed. EHS children had greater odds of receiving POHS from oral health care providers than non-EHS children. EHS and non-EHS children had equal rates for fluoride overall because of the greater percentage of non-EHS children with medical fluoride visits. The integration of POHS in early education and Medicaid medical benefits combined with existing dental resources in the community greatly improves access to POHS.

Setting: Community

Population of Focus: Children between 10 and 36 months of age