Parental caries-related behaviour and knowledge change following education

Objectives: To examine behaviour and knowledge changes in parents randomised to test and control groups in the trial of an educational program aimed at preventing early childhood caries in Quebec, Canada. Methods: A community-based, multi-centre, single-blinded, randomised controlled trial design was used. A sample of 749 parent/child dyads was recruited, when the infants were approximately 6 months old. The test intervention was an educational program in which dental hygienists delivered caries-prevention material to the dyads on a one-on-one basis on four occasions, at 6-month intervals. Caries-related knowledge and behaviour data were collected through 11 knowledge- and 11 behaviour-related questions in a questionnaire completed by parents themselves. Parent/child dyads were categorised into those with relatively good, versus relatively poor caries prevention-related knowledge and behaviours based on the median score for knowledge (5/11 good responses) and behaviours (7/11 good responses) at the baseline evaluations. The same categorisation was used at outcomes evaluations. Comparisons of proportions of dyads in test and control groups changing or remaining the same with respect to the knowledge and behaviour variables were made using chi square tests. Results: In the test group 252 (65.8%) participants improved and 100 (26.1%) retained good behaviours, while 199 (54.4%) control group participants improved and 92 (25.1%) retained good behaviours (p<0.0001). In addition, 146 (38.1%) participants from the test group improved and 149 (38.9%) retained good knowledge, while 78 (21.3%%) control group participants improved and 134 (36.6%) retained good knowledge (p<0.0001). Furthermore, 47.5% of dyads with caries at outcome reported good knowledge and behaviour, while this was true of 61.2% of the caries-free group (p=0.016). Conclusion: The test intervention resulted in improvements or retention of good caries-prevention-related knowledge and behaviour and the caries-free group had a greater proportion of participants with such knowledge and behaviours. Funding by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.