The objectives of the Northeast Center for Research to Reduce Oral Health Disparities (CRROHD) are to: (1) conduct research that will lead to an understanding of the factors associated with oral health disparities, (2) develop, test and evaluate interventions designed to reduce oral health disparities, in children and their caregivers, (3) serve as a training and mentoring resource for developing and strengthening biomedical, clinical and behavioral oral health research capacity by expanding research opportunities for scientists in under- represented groups within the scientific workforce as well as through other career development activities, (4) disseminate information on oral health status of underserved populations, and on effective means to reduce oral health disparities and (5) over the seven year period of initial support for the Center, to create a regional network of collaborating institutions, building on the partnerships already established in the course of developing this application. A. develop valid means by which reliably measure the impact of oral conditions on health-related quality of life in children and their caregivers, B. test interventions to change pediatricians' practice behaviors in order to reduce early childhood caries. C. determine whether severe early childhood caries affects the growth of young children, and children's and their caregivers' health-related quality of life. D. describe the oral flora in children, and their caregivers, from underserved populations with oral health disparities in order to better understand the acquisition/transmission of pathogenic flora in children. Our organizing hypothesis is that oral conditions are important determinants of a child's general health, as well as of the child's and family members' functional status and sense of well-being (i.e., health- related quality of life). The reduction or elimination of disparities in oral health may be viewed as an important means by which to promote the general health and well-being of children and their caregivers. In our proposed research projects, the oral condition that we will initially focus is early childhood caries. A related theme of our Center is that in order to successfully reduce or eliminate oral health disparities, the participation of non-dental health care providers will be essential. Thus, efforts aimed at improving oral health in underserved communities need to be structured so as to take full opportunity of the availability of many existing community resources (including physicians, nurses, teachers, social workers, clergy, community-based organizations, and school-based programs). One of the proposed Center projects will specifically test the effectiveness of educating pediatricians to carry out oral health assessment and interventions aimed at reducing early childhood caries. The four component projects of the Center will each drawn from core resources, organized to provide the research infrastructure necessary to achieve the aims of each individual project. In turn, each component project is expected to yield results that will contribute both to understanding the nature of oral health disparities as well as to identifying effective means to reduce and eliminate such disparities.
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