The perceptions of first nation participants in a community oral health initiative
The Children’s Oral Health Initiative (COHI) is a federally funded community-based preventive dental program for children and their caregivers living in geographically isolated Canadian Aboriginal communities. The goal of the program is to improve access to preventive dental services for children of...
Published in: | International Journal of Circumpolar Health |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:6cbe1c317cbb4ed7aef0eea419779d29 2023-05-15T15:12:51+02:00 The perceptions of first nation participants in a community oral health initiative Kavita R. Mathu-Muju James McLeod Leeann Donnelly Rosamund Harrison Michael I. MacEntee 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2017.1364960 https://doaj.org/article/6cbe1c317cbb4ed7aef0eea419779d29 EN eng Taylor & Francis Group http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2017.1364960 https://doaj.org/toc/2242-3982 2242-3982 doi:10.1080/22423982.2017.1364960 https://doaj.org/article/6cbe1c317cbb4ed7aef0eea419779d29 International Journal of Circumpolar Health, Vol 76, Iss 1 (2017) Community health workers dental primary prevention pediatric dentistry Aboriginal health First Nations health Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2017.1364960 2022-12-31T02:02:14Z The Children’s Oral Health Initiative (COHI) is a federally funded community-based preventive dental program for children and their caregivers living in geographically isolated Canadian Aboriginal communities. The goal of the program is to improve access to preventive dental services for children of 0–7 years of age. It utilises community health workers in collaboration with dental therapists to promote and deliver the program. Almost half of the province of Manitoba’s (n=27) First Nations communities have implemented COHI since 2005. The objective of this investigation was to explore the opinions of COHI from the perspective of community members whose children had participated in the program. Purposeful selection identified caregivers of enrolled children for a semi-structured interview. The targeted caregivers had children who met at least one of the following criteria: (1) 0–2 years old; (2) 5–7 years old; (3) had two or more children either currently or formerly enrolled in COHI. Six open-ended questions guided the interview process. Content analysis was used to code transcripts and identify themes. One hundred and forty-one interviews were completed in 13 communities. Participants defined good oral health as the absence of dental cavities, which reflects a Western biomedical model of disease. The local, community-based nature of COHI was viewed as essential to its success in increasing access to preventive dental services and improving children and caregivers’ oral health knowledge and behaviours. In conclusion, a local, community-based oral health prevention programme is perceived as having a beneficial effect on children and caregivers’ oral health knowledge and behaviours. However, oral health preventive messages need to be further integrated into traditional Aboriginal holistic models of wellness. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Circumpolar Health First Nations International Journal of Circumpolar Health Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic International Journal of Circumpolar Health 76 1 1364960 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Community health workers dental primary prevention pediatric dentistry Aboriginal health First Nations health Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 |
spellingShingle |
Community health workers dental primary prevention pediatric dentistry Aboriginal health First Nations health Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Kavita R. Mathu-Muju James McLeod Leeann Donnelly Rosamund Harrison Michael I. MacEntee The perceptions of first nation participants in a community oral health initiative |
topic_facet |
Community health workers dental primary prevention pediatric dentistry Aboriginal health First Nations health Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 |
description |
The Children’s Oral Health Initiative (COHI) is a federally funded community-based preventive dental program for children and their caregivers living in geographically isolated Canadian Aboriginal communities. The goal of the program is to improve access to preventive dental services for children of 0–7 years of age. It utilises community health workers in collaboration with dental therapists to promote and deliver the program. Almost half of the province of Manitoba’s (n=27) First Nations communities have implemented COHI since 2005. The objective of this investigation was to explore the opinions of COHI from the perspective of community members whose children had participated in the program. Purposeful selection identified caregivers of enrolled children for a semi-structured interview. The targeted caregivers had children who met at least one of the following criteria: (1) 0–2 years old; (2) 5–7 years old; (3) had two or more children either currently or formerly enrolled in COHI. Six open-ended questions guided the interview process. Content analysis was used to code transcripts and identify themes. One hundred and forty-one interviews were completed in 13 communities. Participants defined good oral health as the absence of dental cavities, which reflects a Western biomedical model of disease. The local, community-based nature of COHI was viewed as essential to its success in increasing access to preventive dental services and improving children and caregivers’ oral health knowledge and behaviours. In conclusion, a local, community-based oral health prevention programme is perceived as having a beneficial effect on children and caregivers’ oral health knowledge and behaviours. However, oral health preventive messages need to be further integrated into traditional Aboriginal holistic models of wellness. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kavita R. Mathu-Muju James McLeod Leeann Donnelly Rosamund Harrison Michael I. MacEntee |
author_facet |
Kavita R. Mathu-Muju James McLeod Leeann Donnelly Rosamund Harrison Michael I. MacEntee |
author_sort |
Kavita R. Mathu-Muju |
title |
The perceptions of first nation participants in a community oral health initiative |
title_short |
The perceptions of first nation participants in a community oral health initiative |
title_full |
The perceptions of first nation participants in a community oral health initiative |
title_fullStr |
The perceptions of first nation participants in a community oral health initiative |
title_full_unstemmed |
The perceptions of first nation participants in a community oral health initiative |
title_sort |
perceptions of first nation participants in a community oral health initiative |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis Group |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2017.1364960 https://doaj.org/article/6cbe1c317cbb4ed7aef0eea419779d29 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Circumpolar Health First Nations International Journal of Circumpolar Health |
genre_facet |
Arctic Circumpolar Health First Nations International Journal of Circumpolar Health |
op_source |
International Journal of Circumpolar Health, Vol 76, Iss 1 (2017) |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2017.1364960 https://doaj.org/toc/2242-3982 2242-3982 doi:10.1080/22423982.2017.1364960 https://doaj.org/article/6cbe1c317cbb4ed7aef0eea419779d29 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2017.1364960 |
container_title |
International Journal of Circumpolar Health |
container_volume |
76 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
1364960 |
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1766343481796591616 |