Clinical trial NCT05284279: Early Childhood Caries and Health Professionals' Perception: a Qualitative Research Protocol to Assess Oral Health Stigma
Official title: Early Childhood Caries and Health Professionals' Perception: a Qualitative Research Protocol to Assess Oral Health Stigma
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Early Childhood Caries (ECC)
Keywords: Dental caries
Social stigma
child
qualitative study
Lead sponsor: Hospices Civils de Lyon
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2022-03-17
Enrollment: 30
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: OTHER
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Participants' selection will be conducted on a semirandom basis, directly from the network of the research team members and from regional professional listings of each specialty (general practitioners, pediatricians, general dentists, pediatric dentists). The sample will be constituted with a maximum variation in age, gender, years in practice, occupation and types of practice (solo, group or interdisciplinary team).

Brief summary: Dental caries is the most common non-communicable disease in childhood. Disease management of caries rests on surgical treatment as well as various preventive strategies such as fluoridation, sealants, personal counselling...

With other non-communicable diseases (obesity, overweight...), it has been demonstrated that health professionals' negative perceptions of their patients could affect disease management quality. Concerning dental caries, some data might suggest that discriminating believes and behaviours toward children with dental caries and their families exist in the medical setting. However, oral health related stigma remains an unexplored issue. This study would be the first to our knowledge to specifically address the question of stigmatisation and discrimination of patients with dental caries. The present project is to conduct an exploratory study focusing on perceptions and attitudes of health professionals toward children with early childhood caries and their parents.

The questions the study aims to answer are: (i) What are health professionals 'perceptions of children with ECC and their family? And (ii) according to health professionals, do these perceptions influence the quality of their care? We hypothesize that some practitioners have negative opinions on children with ECC and their parents, affecting the quality of their care, especially concerning oral health prevention.

Method: Individual semi-structured interviews will be conducted among dentists (general or pediatric), general practitioners and paediatricians.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* speak French fluently
* practice with children as a dentist (general or pediatric), a general practitioner, or a paediatrician
* work in hospital or ambulatory facility

Exclusion Criteria:

* NA

Primary outcomes:
measure: Health professionals' representations of children with dental caries and their family
timeFrame: The main outcome will be collected during the interviews.
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Rhone-Alpes Region
country: France
facility: As much as possible, interviews will be performed face to face at a location convenient to the respondent or using videoconference due to COVID19 pandemic context.
Study officials:
References: