Is Dental Utilization Associated with Oral Health Literacy?

The objectives of this study were to examine the pattern of association between dental utilization and oral health literacy (OHL). As part of the Carolina Oral Health Literacy Project, clients in the Women, Infants, and Children’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program completed a structured 30-min in-person interview conducted by 2 trained interviewers at 9 sites in 7 counties in North Carolina. Data were collected on clients’ OHL, sociodemographics, dental utilization, self-efficacy, and dental knowledge. The outcome, OHL, was measured with a dental word recognition test (30-item Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry). Descriptive and multiple linear regression methods were used to examine the distribution of OHL and its association with covariates. After adjusting for age, education, race, marital status, self-efficacy, and dental knowledge, multiple linear regression showed that dental utilization was not a significant predictor of OHL (P > 0.05). Under the conditions of this study, dental utilization was not a significant predictor of OHL

The Impact of Early Head Start on Children's Oral Health

Background. Early Head Start (EHS) is a publicly-funded comprehensive education program for low-income children under three years-old and their families. It is known to improve physical, cognitive and developmental child outcomes over the life course. While EHS impacts general health outcomes, little is known about its effect on oral health. This study assesses the effects of EHS on dental use and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL); as well as how the effect of EHS on dental use is modified by parents’ health literacy. Methods. This study examines oral health outcomes in children enrolled in North Carolina EHS programs where staff participated in an educational intervention known as Zero Out Early Childhood Caries (ZOE) and compares these results to Medicaid-matched controls. Parent interviews were conducted at baseline and 24-month follow-up for 1,178 parent-child dyads. Propensity score analysis was used to control for selection bias between the EHS and the control group. Logistic regression, marginalized zero-inflated negative binomial and marginalized semicontinuous two-part modeling with direct adjustment for propensity scores and random effects were used to examine the association between EHS and dental outcomes. Results. EHS children had increased odds of having any dental visit (aOR=2.5; 95% CI=1.74-3.48) and any preventive dental visits (aOR=2.6; 95% CI=1.84-3.63) compared to non-EHS children. Children in EHS had 1.3 times (95% CI=1.17-1.55) the adjusted mean number of dental visits compared to the children not in EHS. EHS families had a lower odds ratio of having any negative impacts to OHRQoL compared to non-EHS children (aOR=0.65; 95% CI=0.48, 0.87). In the adjusted logit models on the effect of EHS on having any dental visits, the interaction effect between EHS and parent’s health literacy was not significant (P>0.05). Conclusions. This study is the first to demonstrate that EHS provides services that increase child dental use and improve OHRQoL for disadvantaged young children and their families. Moreover, our findings provide evidence that EHS results in similar improvements in dental use regardless of parents’ health literacy levels. These results document the effectiveness of comprehensive early education programs in improving dental use and quality of life for low-resource, low-literacy families.Doctor of Philosoph

A decade of horizontal deformation from great earthquakes

The 21st Century has seen the occurrence of 17 great earthquakes (Mw >8), including some of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. Numerical modeling of the earthquakes shows that nearly half of the Earth's surface has undergone horizontal coseismic defo

Characterizing and minimizing the effects of noise in tide gauge time series: Relative and geocentric sea level rise around Australia

We quantify the rate of sea level rise around the Australian continent from an analysis of tidegauge and Global Positioning System (GPS) data sets. To estimate the underlying linear ratesof sea level change in the presence of significant interannual and

20th to 21st Century Relative Sea and Land Level Changes in Northern California: Tectonic Land Level Changes and their Contribution to Sea-Level Rise, Humboldt Bay Region, Northern California

Sea-level changes are modulated in coastal northern California by land-level changes due to the earthquake cycle along the Cascadia subduction zone, the San Andreas plate boundary fault system, and crustal faults. Sea-level rise (SLR) subjects ecological and anthropogenic infrastructure to increased vulnerability to changes in habitat and increased risk for physical damage. The degree to which each of these forcing factors drives this modulation is poorly resolved. We use NOAA tide gage data and ‘campaign’ tide gage deployments, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data, and National Geodetic Survey (NGS) first-order levelling data to calculate vertical land motion (VLM) rates in coastal northern California. Sea-level observations, highway level surveys, and GNSS data all confirm that land is subsiding in Humboldt Bay, in contrast to Crescent City where the land is rising. Subtracting absolute sea-level rate (~1.99 mm/year) from Crescent City (CC) and North Spit (NS) gage relative sea-level rates reveals that CC is uplifting at ~2.83 mm/year and NS is subsiding at ~3.21mm/year. GNSS vertical deformation reveals similar rates of ~2.60 mm/year of uplift at Crescent City. In coastal northern California, there is an E-W trending variation in vertical land motion that is primarily due to Cascadia megathrust fault seismogenic coupling. This interseismic subsidence also dominates the N-S variation in vertical land motion in most of the study region. There exists a second-order heterogeneous N-S trend in vertical land motion that we associate to crustal fault-related strain. There may be non-tectonic contributions to the observed VLM rates

Consensus statement on future directions for the behavioral and social sciences in oral health

The behavioral and social sciences are central to understanding and addressing oral and craniofacial health, diseases, and conditions. With both basic and applied approaches, behavioral and social sciences are relevant to every discipline in dentistry and all dental, oral, and craniofacial sciences, as well as oral health promotion programs and health care delivery. Key to understanding multilevel, interacting influences on oral health behavior and outcomes, the behavioral and social sciences focus on individuals, families, groups, cultures, systems, societies, regions, and nations. Uniquely positioned to highlight the importance of racial, cultural, and other equity in oral health, the behavioral and social sciences necessitate a focus on both individuals and groups, societal reactions to them related to power, and environmental and other contextual factors. Presented here is a consensus statement that was produced through an iterative feedback process. The statement reflects the current state of knowledge in the behavioral and social oral health sciences and identifies future directions for the field, focusing on 4 key areas: behavioral and social theories and mechanisms related to oral health, use of multiple and novel methodologies in social and behavioral research and practice related to oral health, development and testing of behavioral and social interventions to promote oral health, and dissemination and implementation research for oral health. This statement was endorsed by over 400 individuals and groups from around the world and representing numerous disciplines in oral health and the behavioral and social sciences. Having reached consensus, action is needed to advance and further integrate and translate behavioral and social sciences into oral health research, oral health promotion and health care, and the training of those working to ensure oral health for all

What role for human capital in the growth process: new evidence from endogenous latent factor panel quantile regressions

The estimates for the human capital effect in cross-country growth regressions have been subject of considerable controversy. We argue that human capital is intrinsically a multidimensional construct. We construct human capital measure by combining available alternative proxies via confirmatory factor analysis. Using panel data endogenous quantile regression methods we analyse the whole conditional growth distribution by simultaneously accounting for the potential endogeneity of human capital and country specific effects. Our results conform to theoretical expectations and we are able to demonstrate the beneficial effect of both the measurement approach and the endogeneity correction on the derivation of theoretically consistent estimates