
Oral Health Activities of Early Head Start and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Programs
Author(s) -
Ashley M. Kranz,
R. Gary Rozier,
Leslie P. Zeldin,
John S. Preisser
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of health care for the poor and underserved
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.511
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1548-6869
pISSN - 1049-2089
DOI - 10.1353/hpu.2012.0090
Subject(s) - head start , head (geology) , early head start , medicine , oral health , environmental health , gerontology , economic growth , psychology , family medicine , biology , economics , developmental psychology , paleontology
Guidelines recommend that Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs (MSHS) address the dental needs of children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers. This study describes parent- and child-oriented oral health activities of North Carolina's MSHS programs and compares them with non-migrant Early Head Start (EHS) programs using data collected from a questionnaire completed by teachers and family services staff. Migrant and Seasonal Head Start staff reported engaging in more oral health activities than EHS staff, which was confirmed by results of logit and ordered logit regression models. Despite promising findings about the engagement of MSHS staff, participation in oral health activities is lower than recommended. Differences between EHS and MSHS programs might be due to differing needs of enrolled children and families or to different approaches to meeting the needs of families.