Disparities in Early Childhood Caries Among Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Preschool Aged Children
Project Description
The purpose of this supplement is to conduct qualitative, formative research to understand oral health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander families and preschool teachers living in Hilo, Hawaii—an area where 33.9 % of the population is Native Hawaiian, which is the highest in the country.
From the findings, researchers hope to develop, pilot, and evaluate an oral health intervention for Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander parents and/or staff of preschool aged children.
This supplement is based on the data from the parent grant, “Defining Microbiological Drivers of Early Childhood Caries in Preschoolers in Southern Arizona” and administrative supplement, “Defining Microbiological Drivers of Early Childhood Caries in Preschoolers of Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Descent.”
This diversity supplement aims to expand the parent award to design a targeted intervention/education program that is based on the knowledge gained from familial versus classroom-based early childhood caries-causing bacteria transmission patterns and to provide career development mentoring and support to Misty Pacheco, the only female and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander tenured faculty member in the University of Hawai`i at Hilo’s Department of Kinesiology and Exercise Science.
Pacheco has a diverse background in public health and health disparities research, focusing on Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. To achieve her career goal of becoming an independent scientist who utilizes social behavioral and biomedical methods to conduct health disparities research, Dr. Pacheco seeks to gain necessary skills in formative research, intervention design, basic molecular biology techniques for sample processing, programming, computation, data analysis, and grant writing.
Specific Aims
- Conduct qualitative, formative research to understand oral health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors (KAB) amongst NH/OPI families and preschool teachers to inform the development of an oral health intervention focused on NH/OPI preschoolers and their families. We postulate that qualitative analysis of the KAB of NHOPI families and preschool teachers will significantly inform an intervention to address the negative health disparities regarding oral health in this population.
- Develop, pilot, and evaluate an oral health intervention for NH/OPI parents and/or staff of preschool aged children. Based on the data from the parent grant and administrative supplement, as well as the qualitative data collected from AIM 1, we will develop a culturally relevant intervention to address NH/OPI oral health disparities.
Supplement name: Disparities in Early Childhood Caries Among Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander Preschool Aged Children
Grant number: This study was funded by 3U54MD012388-04S2 & 05S1 (yr 2)
IRB number: 2020-00156 (UH-Hilo)
About the Investigators
Julie Baldwin, PhD
Viacheslav “Slava” Fofanov, PhD
