“What are we doing to our babies’ teeth?” Barriers to establishing oral health practices for Indigenous children in South Australia

BMC Oral Health

Joanne Hedges¹  Lisa Jamieson¹  Brianna Poirier¹  Megan Moskos²  Lisa Smithers³ 

[1] Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, Adelaide Dental School, University of Adelaide, 5000, Adelaide, Australia;Future of Employment and Skills Research Centre, Faculty of the Professions, University of Adelaide, 5000, Adelaide, Australia;School of Public Health and the Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, 5000, Adelaide, Australia;The School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, 2522, Wollongong, Australia;

关键词: Indigenous health;    Oral health;    Early childhood caries;    Indigenous oral health;    Nutrition knowledge;    Oral health knowledge;    Dental public health;    Social determinants of health;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12903-021-01791-x

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDuring the 1970s, optimal oral health was experienced more frequently amongst Indigenous children in Australia than their non-Indigenous counterparts. As a result of public health interventions targeting oral disease, oral health has improved for most children; however, Indigenous children today experience oral disease at alarmingly high rates. A history of colonisation, assimilation, racism and cultural annihilation has had profound impacts on oral health for Indigenous peoples; compounded by environmental dispossession and a shift from traditional diets to one of processed and nutrient-poor foods, often high in sugar.MethodsThis project aimed to identify factors related to the increased occurrence of caries in Indigenous children. Using purposive sampling from the larger project, this paper thematically analyses 327 motivational interviews to explore current barriers impeding parental efforts to establish oral health and nutrition practices for Indigenous children. Representation of socioeconomic positions of families were compared across themes, as based on maternal age, employment, residency and number of children in care.ResultsFindings resulted in a conceptual model of barriers that exist across knowledge, social, structural and parental factors. Major thematic results include: social consumption of processed foods, busy households, misleading nutrition marketing, sugar cravings and lack of oral health and nutrition knowledge.ConclusionA discussion of the findings results in the following recommendations increased oral health promotion efforts in non-metropolitan areas; utilisation of community experiences in creating strategies that encourage oral health and nutrition knowledge; and the extension of oral health initiatives and future research to include all family members.Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ACTRN12611000111976; registered 01/02/2011.

【 授权许可】

CC BY