Health communication interventions to increase early preventive dental visits for preschool-age children enrolled in Medicaid: A formative research perspective

Early preventive dental visits are vital to oral health for children. Yet many children, especially preschool-aged children enrolled in Medicaid, do not have early visits. This study uses qualitative and quantitative methods to uncover factors that can be used to encourage parents to seek preventive dental care for their preschool-aged children enrolled in Medicaid. The Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) was used as a theoretical framework for guiding this research. EPPM suggests that parents will only seek dental care for their child if the threat (severity and susceptibility) is great enough and parents' efficacy levels (self-efficacy and response efficacy) are high. Focus groups were conducted with parents (N = 41) and results of the focus groups were used to construct a survey (N = 1,317). Parents were grouped in 4 categories based on reported threat and efficacy levels (low threat/low efficacy, low threat/high efficacy, high threat/low efficacy, high threat/high efficacy). Overall, parents with higher efficacy (regardless of threat levels) were more likely to report behaviors, attitudes, and normative perceptions that were more consistent with utilization of dental care. Using logistic regression to predict if a child had a preventive visit, parents with low threat/high efficacy and parents with high threat/high efficacy were about 2.5 times more likely to have a child with a preventive visit than parents with low threat/low efficacy, when controlling for oral health status, health literacy, and child's age. The presentation will highlight how EPPM can be used to prioritize audiences and develop messages tailored to parents.