Purpose: Dental disease ranks in the top five health problems for migrant farmworkers. They are predominantly Hispanic and research shows twice the percentage of unfilled decayed teeth when compared to whites. Itinerant carnival workers are a similar migrant population, but relatively invisible and engage little attention from the public. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine health disparities in dental health of children from these two marginalized groups compared to national samples of healthy children.
Theoretical Framework: Theory underlying this research is an integration of Flaskerud and Winslow’s Vulnerable Populations Conceptual Model and Evans and Stoddart’s Determinants of Health Model.
Subjects: Subjects were 33 children (2-12 years), whose parents worked at a large vegetable farm (n=21), the Ohio State Fair, and regional carnivals (n=12). Sixty-two percent were Hispanics; 91.7% self-identified as white and 8.3% American Indian.
Method: After IRB and agency approvals, recruitment announcements in English/Spanish were distributed. Following demographic questions, children were given an oral health assessment by the PI, trained by the OSU College of Dentistry. Health disparities were measured by the mean: decayed or filled teeth (dft), caries treated and present; percentage of caries-free children and an oral hygiene assessment scored on a scale of 1-4. These represent the amount of services a child does/does not receive.
Results: Migrant children compared with carnival children was 3.38/2.25 (mean dft), 0.29/1.25 (mean caries present), 2.95/0.92 (caries treated), 42.9%/25% (percent caries free) with similar fair to poor oral hygiene assessments (52.4%/58.3%).
Conclusions: These families face environmental issues: mobile life-styles, restricted health care access which impacts carnival children greater than migrants. Current programs available to migrant children have improved their dental care. Research is needed to further identify health disparities in dental health and improve access to care.
Key words: dental health, carnival children, migrant children
Session #1223 - Graduate Student Poster Session
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)