Coordinated Oral Health Promotion (CO-OP) Chicago
Condition: Dental Caries in Children; Health Behavior; Healthcare Disparities
MeSH terms: Dental Caries
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This study assesses the impact of oral health promotion delivered by community health workers
      in medical clinics, Women, Infants and Children (WIC) centers, and family homes.
      Investigators will assess oral health behaviors in children aged 0 to 3.
    

Detailed description: 
      Dental caries is the most common chronic disease of childhood; an estimated 28% of children
      nationally aged 5 years and below have untreated dental disease. Pediatric dental caries are
      associated with pain, more severe infections, malnutrition, speech difficulties, poor school
      performance, cosmetic problems, and an overall lower quality of life. Similar to other
      chronic diseases, oral health disparities are seen with higher caries prevalence and worse
      outcomes in children from low income urban families and in children of African American and
      Latino ethnicity. These disparities have been demonstrated locally in Chicago. Many
      interventions have been implemented to attempt to reverse these disparities. Some involve
      public policy (fluorinated water), some are educational campaigns targeting individuals,
      while others focus on providing increased education and services through primary healthcare
      providers. Many of these programs have demonstrated efficacy but the disparities in oral
      health persist. The investigators propose this is because the interventions to date do not
      target the family as a whole and also have not targeted multiple levels simultaneously.

      COordinated Oral health Promotion (CO-OP) Chicago brings together a team of clinical
      pediatricians and dentists, health researchers, and policy experts to rigorously test the
      ability of multiple oral health promotion interventions, both alone and in combination, to
      improve child and family oral health. The primary intervention is family-focused education
      and support from community health workers (CHWs). CO-OP Chicago will test the impact of a
      family-focused CHW intervention for oral health promotion when applied in clinical,
      community, and home settings. The primary study objective is to evaluate the efficacy of a
      one-year oral health CHW intervention, compared to usual care, to improve self-reported
      brushing frequency and observed plaque score in low income urban children under the age of 3
      years old. The study's exploratory aim is to determine if the oral health CHW intervention
      impact on child tooth brushing behaviors varies when the CHWs are based out of a medical
      clinic compared to a community WIC center.
    

Intervention name(s): Community Health Worker (CHW) services
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): CHWs are non-clinical people who provide education, care coordination, and support to families.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: cluster-randomized two arm trial with wait list control
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Other