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ScienceDaily (Feb. 16, 2010) — Whether or not children receive regular dental care is strongly associated with their parents' history of seeking dental care. A new report to appear in the journal Pediatrics, which has been released online, is the first to analyze the relationship between parents' and childrens' dental visits in a nationally represntative sample.
When parents don't see the dentist, their children are much less likely to see the dentist,\" says Inyang Isong, MD, MPH, of the MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy, the study's lead author. \"We also found that the children of parents who have put off their own dental care for financial reasons are more likely to have their care deferred due to cost as well. It looks like strategies to promote oral health should focus on the whole family.\"
The study's authors note that dental caries -- tooth decay -- is of one of the most prevalent childhood diseases and is particularly common among minority and low-income children. Previous studies have associated factors including insurance coverage, parents' income and education, and the availability of dental care in the local community with the likelihood that children will have regular dental visits.
Earlier investigations of the impact of parents' accessing dental care focused on particular demographic groups. In order to see whether associations from those studies applied more broadly, the current investigation analyzed data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey and its Child Health Supplement, which are designed to collect basic health and demographic information, along with answers to questions on health topics of current interest, from a cross section of the U.S. population.
Survey responses including data regarding dental visits for both a child and parent in the same household was available for around 6,100 matched pairs. Among parents who reported seeing a dentist during the preceding year, 86 percent of children had also seen a dentist; but only 64 percent of the children of parents with no recent dental visit had seen a dentist during the previous 12 months. In addition, among parents who put off their own dental care because of financial considerations, 27 percent of their children also had dental care deferred. In contrast, only 3 percent of children whose parents had not put off their own care care had their dental care deferred.
\"Even when children are covered by medical insurance, it appears that financial barriers are influencing parents' decisions about accessing dental care for their children,\" says Isong, a clincal fellow at MGHfC. \"We're now in the process of looking at the impact of dental insurance -- something not addressed by the NHIS -- and other enabling resources on the relationship between parents' and children's receipt of dental care.\"
James Perrin, MD, of the MGHfC Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy is senior author of the Pediatrics paper. Additional co-authors are Karen Kuhlthau, PhD, and Jonathan Winickoff, MD, MPH, MGHfC; Katharine Zuckerman, MD, MPH, Oregon Health and Science University; and Sowmya Rao, PhD, MGH Biostatistics Center.
编译：postgraduate007
每日科学（2010年.二月十六日）儿童是否经常拜访牙医与其父母就诊次数有很大关系，一个新的报告刊登在儿科杂志上，同时这篇文章也被发在网上，报告首先通过一些在全国具有代表性的样本，分析了在父母和孩子看牙医之间的关系。
“当父母不看牙医时，他们的孩子可能更少看牙医，”伊尼扬伊松说，他是麻省总医院儿童中心，负责儿童和青少年健康政策的公共卫生博士，此项研究的主要负责人，“那些由于家庭财务问题而推迟去看牙医的父母的子女，也可能由于同样的理由而延误了去看牙医的时间，看来保护口腔健康的战略应针对整个家庭。
研究的作者注意到，龋齿-损害的牙齿-是儿童中最流行的疾病之一，特别是在其他种族以及一些低收入家庭中的孩子更为普遍。此前的研究还涉及了其他的影响牙齿健康的因素，包括是否有保险，父母的收入，教育背景和在本地社区孩子是否存在看牙医的条件。
更早的调查父母看牙医的影响，针对的是人口统计中的特殊群体。为了能使调查涉及更广泛，为了能搜集最基本的健康和人口信息，此次调查，所分析的数据主要来自2007年国民健康调查访问和儿童保健补充，这从美国人口的一个断面反映目前关心的健康问题。
调查反馈数据包括了在同一家庭里父母和子女就诊牙医，大约有6100个符合的样本。父母在前一年看过牙医他们的子女有86%也看过牙医，而在那些近十二个月没有看过牙医的父母中，他们的子女只有64%看过牙医，另外，那些由于家庭财政原因而推迟去进行口腔治疗的父母的子女有27%也被推迟了口腔治疗，相比之下，那些父母及时接受口腔治疗家庭中的孩子，仅有3%推迟了接受口腔治疗的时间。
甚至那些有医疗保险的孩子中，家庭财政不足仍是他们父母决定是否让他们子女接受口腔治疗的影响因素， 伊松说，麻省总医院儿童中心公共卫生博士，“我们现在正在研究口腔保险和其他能影响父母和孩子就诊牙医的因素
麻省总医院儿童中心，负责儿童和青少年健康政策的James Perrin是这篇儿科论文的主要作者，共著者还有MGHfC的公共卫生Karen Kuhlthau博士，Jonathan博士；俄勒冈卫生科技大学Katharine Zuckerman公共卫生博士，麻省总医院生物统计学中心Sowmya Rao博士
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推荐理由：经常会碰到患有牙科恐惧症的儿童，儿童时期不愉快的牙科就诊经历可能影像成人后口腔保健及治疗的积极性，这说明父母对儿童要加以引导 |
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发表于 2010-3-27 20:18:08
