Physical injuries from domestic violence commonly appear in the areas of the face, head, and neck. For this reason, oral health care professionals have an important role to play in addressing this major public health problem. Recent studies have revealed that many oral health care professionals are unaware of this significant relationship between head and neck injuries and domestic violence, and are uncertain of their role in addressing this issue with their patients. Furthermore, other studies suggest that many oral health care professional feel uncomfortable offering assistance to domestic violence victims. In a randomized, controlled trial, we propose to develop and test the effectiveness of an educational and behavioral change intervention designed to help oral health care professionals effectively overcome reluctance to identify and treat victims of domestic violence, and to effect positive changes in their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors with respect to caring for this patient population. The ultimate goal of this undertaking is to help prevent victims of domestic violence who seek dental care from being subjective to further violence and oral trauma. Research subjects will be recruited from among all practicing, office- based dentists and dental hygienists in Northern California and randomly assigned to either an Experimental or a Control Group. All subjects will be asked to complete the Oral Health are Professional Written Survey at each of three measurement points--pre-test, post-test (immediately following conclusion of an intervention), and six-month follow-up. This survey asks about dentists' and dental hygienists knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding identifying, assessing, and intervening with patients who are victims are domestic violence. Experimental Group participants will receive a targeted educational and behavioral change intervention based upon interventions shown to be successful by this research team and by others, but incorporating unique elements as well. The components of the intervention will include 1) individualized feedback of pretest scores (compared against either an """"""""ideal"""""""" response or the average response of all subjects); 2) Skills-based Course consisting of a seminar module and an internet-based, self-study module; 3) Dental Record Reminder Cards (to be inserted into the dental record of all new patients of subjects in the Experimental Group) that provide a handy checklist of domestic violence assessment questions, referral information regarding community-based assistance programs and tips for providing validation and support to victims; and, 4) Practice-oriented newsletters exploring oral health care professionals' perceptions of some of the barriers to identifying and aiding victims of domestic violence in a dental care setting, and suggesting ways to remove or reduce these barriers. The main outcome measures will be dentists' and dental hygienists' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding treating and assisting patients who are victims of domestic violence as measured by the Oral Health Care Professional Written Survey.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
Type
Comprehensive Center (P60)
Project #
5P60DE013058-05
Application #
6783552
Study Section
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$50,093
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California San Francisco
Department
Type
DUNS #
094878337
City
San Francisco
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94143
Bronckers, Antonius L J J; Lyaruu, Don M; Guo, Jing et al. (2015) Composition of mineralizing incisor enamel in cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator-deficient mice. Eur J Oral Sci 123:9-16
Gansky, Stuart A; Cheng, Nancy F; Koch, Gary G (2011) Dose-Weighted Adjusted Mantel-Haenszel Tests for Numeric Scaled Strata in a Randomized Trial. Stat Biopharm Res 3:266-275
Walsh, Margaret M; Langer, Timothy J; Kavanagh, Niall et al. (2010) Smokeless tobacco cessation cluster randomized trial with rural high school males: intervention interaction with baseline smoking. Nicotine Tob Res 12:543-50
Gansky, Stuart A; Ellison, James A; Kavanagh, Catherine et al. (2009) Patterns and correlates of spit tobacco use among high school males in rural California. J Public Health Dent 69:116-24
Kim, Jae-Beom; Leucht, Philipp; Luppen, Cynthia A et al. (2007) Reconciling the roles of FAK in osteoblast differentiation, osteoclast remodeling, and bone regeneration. Bone 41:39-51
Saeki, Kuniko; Hilton, Joan F; Alliston, Tamara et al. (2007) Elevated TGF-beta2 signaling in dentin results in sex related enamel defects. Arch Oral Biol 52:814-21
Six, N; Septier, D; Chaussain-Miller, C et al. (2007) Dentonin, a MEPE fragment, initiates pulp-healing response to injury. J Dent Res 86:780-5
Weintraub, J A; Ramos-Gomez, F; Jue, B et al. (2006) Fluoride varnish efficacy in preventing early childhood caries. J Dent Res 85:172-6
Hsieh, Nancy Kwon; Herzig, Karen; Gansky, Stuart A et al. (2006) Changing dentists' knowledge, attitudes and behavior regarding domestic violence through an interactive multimedia tutorial. J Am Dent Assoc 137:596-603
Colnot, Celine (2005) Cellular and molecular interactions regulating skeletogenesis. J Cell Biochem 95:688-97

Showing the most recent 10 out of 35 publications