This is a proposal for a planning grant to develop research approaches to discover whether dentist-patient communication leads to disparities in the prevalence of caries and periodontal disease in African American and Hispanic patients, and to identify testable methods to improve communication to avoid or alleviate those disparities.
The specific aims are:
Aim One : To create a research team and form an Advisory Board for the development of research plans, and to obtain training for the team.
Aim Two : To look for methods of studying the effect of dental team communication on caries and periodontal disease of Hispanic and African American dental school patients.
Aim Three : To determine what methods promote compliance and good communication between practitioners and Hispanic and African American patients, to identify training methods for the dental team, and to develop evaluation protocols to test the methods that can be used to apply for pilot funding or R01 funding, as appropriate. If dental teams are more likely to alienate or fail to make an effective working relationship with African American or Hispanic patients than with White patients, then they are less likely to obtain important information from that patient, they are less likely to have a positive influence on the patient's dental attendance or home care behavior, and they are less likely to convince the patient of the appropriate treatment plan. This is especially true if the treatment plan consists of regimens that require specific patient behaviors, such as plaque control programs. The methods to be used are 1) literature searches to identify variables and methods, 2) interviews and focus groups with patients, dental students, dental hygiene students, faculty and dental school staff to uncover potential difficulties and assure that important areas are identified, 3) an advisory board to review and advise about potential difficulties with the measures and methods, identify areas that should be explored, and to review the value of proposed research plans, 4) consultation and training with experts in measuring communication and in teaching cultural competence, and 5) statistical advice on measurement and analyses. A two year plan is proposed with the expectation of producing several research proposals aimed at both measuring the effect of doctor-patient communication on disparities and evaluating training methods to help dental providers communicate better with minorities.
