Improving children's oral health by making it a community priority

Background/purpose: Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation seeks to eradicate cavities among children ages 0-3, focusing on families living in low socioeconomic conditions—a population disproportionately affected by dental disease. To do this, it is building public will for oral health among pregnant women and families, motivating behavior change. It also is building public will among community leaders and influencers, motivating them to prioritize oral health and support funding, access and policy. Methods: The Foundation conducted qualitative research to understand values, beliefs, behaviors, motivators and barriers affecting oral health among families, community leaders and civically engaged individuals. Guided by the results, it developed an initiative that includes a bilingual media campaign; a promotoras program that deploys trained community members to teach others about oral health behaviors (the promotoras program is a partnership with LiveWell Colorado, combining obesity-prevention education with oral health curriculum); and partnerships with the Colorado Children's Museum and others. It also includes an issue advocacy campaign to create more diverse support for oral health, softening the ground for future policy change. Results/outcomes: Early message testing shows that the campaign is effectively reaching its target audiences. The campaign is being piloted March-September 2013, with evaluation at key points throughout and final evaluation in October, in time to share results at the annual meeting. Conclusions/implications: The campaign development and evaluation results will be instructive for others working on health promotion and education interventions, and provide insight for other maternal and child health initiatives.