Keeping it in the family
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Keeping it in the family: A mixed methods study to explore cultural and family-related oral health behaviours and associated factors in high-risk families in East London.
IRAS ID
329050
Contact name
Katharine Julia Hurry
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Barts Health NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Summary of Research: Tooth decay is the main reason for children to have a general anaesthetic (GA) in hospital despite this being largely preventable. We know decay affects children more when they are from deprived socio-economic or ethnic minority backgrounds. We also know that decay affects sibling groups; despite this, no research has investigated how to use this link to promote good oral health and reduce tooth decay within families.
A group of children who had dental treatment under GA at the Royal London Hospital have been studied and a high number of those were siblings; some families had multiple children who required multiple episodes of dental treatment whilst asleep. Even though having a GA is emotionally and mentally stressful, the families did not change their unhealthy dental behaviour and subsequently children suffered unnecessary pain and infection.
This research will approach parents/carers from this sibling patient group to get their opinions on how to encourage families to adopt healthier dental behaviours. The project has two stages:
1. A questionnaire sent to parents/carers to assess their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours with regards to their child’s oral health.
2. To undertake qualitative interviews with those who replied to the questionnaire to determine the main themes and barriers.This research will influence how we give professional oral health advice and what interventions we can provide to these hard-to-reach families, helping children in the local area, nationally and internationally.
Summary of Results: This study gave a voice to parents and carers of more than one child who had had a dental general anaesthetic at the Royal London Dental Hospital. The grant funded a patient information leaflet and questionnaire that was sent to over 400 parents, and follow-up interview. There were challenges with recruitment and engagement for the research project, despite working with a PPI group in the creation of the participant facing documents. As such, only 18 out of the 409 parents/carers engaged with the questionnaire. Similarly, only one parent/carer attended interview.
As a result of this, connections were made with Social Action for Health – a community-based health charity that provides services and support to people most affected by health inequalities in East London. A focus group of parents and carers was held consisting of 8 participants. We found that parents and carers had similar experiences with high rates of dental decay within their families with more than one child requiring dental treatment. The focus group felt that could be because most advice is aimed at individual children rather than families even though siblings have similar tooth problems. They raised the need to generate culturally appropriate and family-based advice targeting eating and toothbrushing. The results of this project have resulted in the Lead Applicant successfully obtaining fellowship funding to further the research and achieve these outcomes.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/SC/0434
Date of REC Opinion
21 Dec 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion