ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oral Health
Sec. Oral Health Promotion
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1620597
This article is part of the Research TopicPromoting A Lifespan Approach to Oral Health and Oral Health-Related Quality of LifeView all 3 articles
The Short-Term Results of An MI-Adapted and Culturally Tailored Intervention on Self-Reported Oral Health Behaviors of Indigenous Caregivers and their Children
Provisionally accepted
- Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, United States
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Abstract American Indian (AI) children have the highest incidence of dental caries of any ethnic group with 4 times the cases of untreated dental caries compared to white children. Great Beginnings for Healthy Native Smiles (NIDCR U01DE028508), a community focused oral health intervention, included culturally tailored oral health education materials utilized alongside adapted motivational interviewing (MI) techniques to promote oral health care and education at home. The intervention was conducted by local community members from two partnered Indigenous communities. Using formative assessment data from semi-structured caregiver and provider interviews, session transcript data, and debriefing interview data from participants post-intervention, the objective of this study was to determine the impact of culturally tailored oral health education focused on behavior change in each community. Results suggest that discussion with community health representatives using adapted MI and culturally tailored materials can result in self-reported behavioral change. The findings highlight the importance of involving trusted community health workers in delivering culturally tailored oral health messages for mothers and their children to reduce ECC.
Keywords: Indigenous oral health, Cultural tailoring, Social determinansts of health, Oral health intervention, Oral Health
Received: 01 May 2025; Accepted: 27 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kirby, Baldwin and Elwell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Christine Kirby, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, United States
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