Effects of an intervention on immigrant parents' knowledge and attitudes toward their children's oral health: A cluster randomized trial in Norway.

Abstract

There are no interventional studies on the oral health of immigrant children in Norway. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a culturally adapted oral health intervention for parental knowledge, attitude to oral hygiene, attitude to diet, and indulgence (permissiveness toward oral hygiene and sugar intake) concerning their children's oral health. A cluster randomized control trial, including immigrant parents of newborns, was conducted at seven health centers in Bergen (Norway) involving a 2-session one-to-one motivational interviews, toothbrushing demonstrations and pamphlets in the participants' native languages at baseline and after 6 months. Mean differences in outcome scores were assessed and compared between intervention and control groups using generalized linear mixed model. In an intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis (n = 345), the estimated mean difference in parental attitude to diet and indulgence between the groups indicated more improvement in the control than in the intervention group in the adjusted models. For all outcomes within both groups, a slight positive change was observed in marginal mean scores from baseline to follow-up. The two culturally adapted intervention sessions had no impact on oral health-related knowledge, attitudes, and indulgence of immigrant parents. These findings suggest that more comprehensive interventions may be needed to improve parental knowledge and attitudes toward children's oral health. Trial Registration number: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05758454.