Parental Attitudes and Beliefs About Preschooler Preventive Oral Health Behaviors: Implications for Health Promotion

Dental caries affects 60-90% of school-aged children, with non-Hispanic Black children among those disproportionately affected. This study seeks to examine the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of Black parents about preventive measures against caries for their preschool children (3-5 years). Parents of Black preschool children in Miami-Dade County (n=192) completed an oral health survey measuring oral health attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze attitudes, beliefs and favorable oral health behaviors. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between parental oral health attitudes and beliefs and their children's oral health behaviors. Most of the parents reported positive attitudes with regards to sugar snacking (81%), brushing child's teeth (88%), attitude to prevention (85%), and perceived seriousness of decay (91%). Parental oral health attitudes were independently associated with children's preventive oral health behaviors (p<0.05). Parental education should be included in interventions geared towards improving children's oral health.