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A controlled, longitudinal study of home visits compared to telephone contacts to prevent early childhood caries
Author(s) -
PLONKA KATHRYN A.,
PUKALLUS MARGARET L.,
BARNETT ADRIAN,
HOLCOMBE TREVOR F.,
WALSH LAURENCE J.,
SEOW W. KIM
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of paediatric dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.183
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1365-263X
pISSN - 0960-7439
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-263x.2011.01219.x
Subject(s) - medicine , early childhood caries , longitudinal study , pediatrics , oral health , dentistry , telephone interview , social science , pathology , sociology
International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry 2013; 23: 23–31 Background. Home visits (HV) provide excellent opportunities for health promotion. Aim. This longitudinal study compared the effects of HV and telephone contacts (TC) in preventing early childhood caries (ECC) and colonisation of mutans streptococci (MS) and lactobacilli (LB) from 0 to 24 months. Design. A total of 325 children were recruited from community health centres at mean age of 42 days, and randomly assigned to receive either HV or TC. A total of 188 children completed three, 6 monthly HV, and another 58 had three, 6 monthly TC. An additional 40 age‐matched children from childcare facilities served as reference controls (RC). At 24 months, all groups were examined at a community dental clinic. Results. At 24 months, three HV children of 188 (1.5%) had caries, compared to four TC of 58 (6.8%) and nine RC of 40 (22.5%) ( P < 0.001 for HV versus RC; P = 0.05 for HV versus TC and P = 0.03 for TC versus RC). There were also more children with MS in the TC (47%) and RC (35%) compared to HV (28%) group ( P = 0.01 and P = 0.02). Conclusions. Home visits and telephone contacts conducted 6 monthly from birth are effective in reducing ECC prevalence by 24 months.