Oral health in rural children is in need of significant improvement. The combination of a high prevalence of poverty, limitations of employment benefits, depressed population and economic growth, and decreased preventive care in rural regions all contribute to the problems in oral healthcare in rural areas.
Current literature and programs show that community involvement is crucial in reducing the outcomes of poor oral health despite economic disadvantages. In this study, three Head Start offices of rural Pennsylvania are used as the community model to determine the extent of awareness and any additional need to change the behaviors of those who participate in the program.
Results showed that in these three areas, Head Start staff needs to increase communication about oral health to parents and guardians. The implications of the studys findings indicate the need to allow communications to be based upon components of community building. The findings from this study are significant in public health since it enables a governmental backed program to be able to be spotlighted upon this pressing issue, which could allow for increased support to address this problem through larger studies representing the entire nation and further legislative actions. The multidimensional attributes of Head Start programs enables the key structures that make community assessments efficacious to be utilized while maintaining general regulations that are accommodating to a multitude of groups. Future actions could even successfully create a nation wide mandate for dental health to be a part of a pre screening regimen for children who are planning on enrolling into schools or daycares.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12042008-211420 |
| Date | 29 January 2009 |
| Creators | Hwang, Esther |
| Contributors | Dr. Kenneth Jaros, Margaret Kuder Hamilton, Dr. Christine Ley |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12042008-211420/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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