The Mississippi State Building Research Infrastructure Capacity (MSBRIC-Phase II) project includes three components: 1) to build upon the research infrastructure and collaborations established during Phase I, with a particular focus upon engaging child care centers as research venues; 2) to continue a systematic research agenda for identifying the best practices for the prevention of dental disease among very young children; and 3) to develop strategies to use the MSBRIC childcare centers as a research model by which results may be replicated among other high-risk populations and similar sites in other underserved and/or rural areas. The general research tasks involved will be to develop and validate the oral health risk assessments in the high-risk Delta population of children in daycare centers, develop and pilot test integrated early childhood oral health intervention programs that can be successfully used with high-risk populations in these centers and, develop a detailed plan to definitively test the long-term effectiveness of the early childhood oral health interventions in the Delta child care venues. These tasks not only represent a major step in developing a sound evidence-based, multi-site, longitudinal study for an important health services issue (effectiveness of early dental interventions), but also serve as the core around which a major and new health services research infrastructure in Mississippi is being built, with the overall goal of improving health outcomes for impoverished children residing in rural settings. Phase II of MSBRIC is designed to be an essential and integral part of major refocusing of the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) and Mississippi State University (MSU) research resources toward health services issues. MSBRIC Phase II will provide to the MSU/SSRC BRIC research team the necessary support for continuation and additional development of working partnerships with key health services providers in the State and with major policy making and policy influencing organizations and agencies in the State and the Nation, which are necessary components of a sustainable and excellent health services research program.
| Southward, Linda H; Robertson, Angela; Edelstein, Burton L et al. (2008) Oral health of young children in Mississippi Delta child care centers: a second look at early childhood caries risk assessment. J Public Health Dent 68:188-95 |
