None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Early childhood dental caries remains a complex childhood problem that affects more than 600 million children worldwide. Our research group has previously found that in NSW currently, one in every 250 children require hospitalisation each year, with a 9% repeat admission rate within a two-year period2 for dental caries. Most of these children attend the safety-net service offered by the public health system. Improving the oral health literacy of parents remains a strong predictor that can shift the barriers to improved oral health outcomes for the child across the lifespan. The latest WHO definition on health literacy is more comprehensive and represents the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health. When applied to the prevention of tooth decay this definition moves beyond providing a pamphlet and includes elements of motivation and empowerment related to the skills (tooth brushing) and self-efficacy required to maintain sustained preventive behaviours. Whilst, previous oral health literacy tools have focused on word recognition and understanding appointment visitations, our study will directly measure oral health literacy for behaviour change. We hypothesise that co-designed text message interventions will improve oral health literacy, self-efficacy, and behaviours (tooth brushing) of parents with children waiting for a hospital admission for dental caries more effectively than usual care. This randomised control trial, aims to co-design, assess the effectiveness, and evaluate a text message program to support oral health behaviours, increase the oral health literacy and self-efficacy of parents, compared to usual care. We also aim to evaluate fidelity, barriers, and enablers which will inform potential scale-up of the intervention.
Interventions
SMILESup: is a 3-month text messaging intervention consisting oral health lifestyle text messages delivered via mobile phone to parents of children who are waiting for a dental general anaesthesia appointment.
The SMILESup text messages are semi-personalised text messages that have been co-designed by consumers (parents and carers) and health professionals. These text messages will be sent out 4 days/ week, for 3 months (48 text messages in total) on the Textcare™ platform. The Textcare™ platf
SMILESup: is a 3-month text messaging intervention consisting oral health lifestyle text messages delivered via mobile phone to parents of children who are waiting for a dental general anaesthesia appointment. The SMILESup text messages are semi-personalised text messages that have been co-designed by consumers (parents and carers) and health professionals. These text messages will be sent out 4 days/ week, for 3 months (48 text messages in total) on the Textcare™ platform. The Textcare™ platform is a purpose-built cloud-based delivery system that can semi-personalise the content and frequency of delivery. It includes safety, privacy, and security systems with analytic data collection. Semi-personalised messages may also mean that they will include the participant child’s preferred name and specifications, such as the timing of when they would like to receive the messages at home. The text-messages will primarily be one-way and prompt participants to change their behaviours by providing practical tips and strategies. The Textcare platform will be monitored by a clinician researcher. Content for text messages will be aligned with the WHO’s Ending childhood dental caries: Implementation manual and the literature and focus on key areas of: 1) oral hygiene, including age-appropriate use of fluorides, 2) diet, including increased consumption of water and 3) night-time routine, specific to the timing of diet and tooth brushing habits. Text messages will be co-designed by researchers, clinicians and consumers, with inital content adapted and curated from the World Health Organisation (WHOs) BeHealthyBeMobile oral health program. These messages will also draw on oral health promotional content from the NSW Health website. A 4-hour co-design workshop will occur 2 months before the study commencement.
Sponsors
Western Sydney Local Health District
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria are parents/carers of children; children must have all of the following: 1)diagnosis of dental caries (tooth decay), 2) age 0 to 6 years old, 3) waiting (or have attended) a hospital admission for dental caries (tooth decay) within the public health system in NSW. Parents/carers of these children must also own an operational mobile phone, capable of sending and receiving SMS text messages; and provide written informed consent.
Exclusion criteria
Parents/carers will be excluded if they do not have a child (0 to 6 years) waiting or who has had hospital admission for dental caries (tooth decay) within the public health system in NSW. Furthermore, parents will be excluded if they : 1) are already participating in a text message-based study on lifestyle risk factors for health, 2)have insufficient English skills to provide informed consent or read and understand text messages; and 3)are unable to comply with study requirements.
Outcome results
None listed