Oral Health Literacy Inventories for Caregivers of Preschool-Aged Children: A Systematic Review

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review was to describe the oral health literacy (OHL) inventories that have been used among caregivers of preschool-aged children. Methods: Four databases were searched (CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source, PubMed), to identify peer-reviewed, full-text studies published in English on the oral health literacy among caregivers of preschool-aged children from 2010-2021. All studies were assessed for eligibility using PRISMA guidelines. Inclusion criteria were experimental, non-experimental, or mixed methods peer-reviewed studies, conducted in the United States. Eligible studies were independently evaluated using the Effective Public Health Practice Project\u27s Quality Assessment Tool. Results: The initial search yielded 182 articles; 11 studies met the inclusion criteria after screening: observational (n=8), experimental (n=2), and quasi-experimental (n=1). Main outcome measures included: oral health literacy, oral health knowledge, oral health attitudes and behaviors, child oral health status (COHS), child oral health-related quality of life (C-OHRQoL), and child oral health-related expenditures. However, this review focused only on caregivers\u27 OHL and the associated measurements for this variable. Most studies utilized the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry (REALD-30); the remainder used the Basic Research Factors Questionnaire (BRFQ), the Oral Health Literacy Inventory for Parents (OH-LIP), or self-designed survey questions. Conclusions: Few studies met the inclusion criteria. There was an uneven distribution of studies using different inventories for the measurement of oral health literacy limiting the generalizability of the findings to low-income and minority groups. Most caregiver OHL studies focused on dental word recognition, only a few measured knowledge and comprehension. More comprehensive inventories could be designed to evaluate caregivers\u27 knowledge and understanding of dental terms

Caregivers\u27 Comprehension of the Terms Decay and Cavities: A Qualitative Analysis

Purpose: Tooth decay and cavities are the most common oral health consequences for young children that may result from inadequate oral health literacy (OHL) or understanding of their caregivers. The purpose of this study was to describe the understanding of terms related to decay and cavities among caregivers of preschool-aged children. Methods: English-speaking caregivers with children aged(OH-LIP). Responses were recorded, transcribed, coded, and assigned to domains and categories. Results: Responses from 111 participants were included in the analysis. About one fifth of the participants (19.8%, n=22) indicated that they did not know what decay was or provided an incorrect response. The majority (71.2%, n=79) made the association that decay was something bad that happens to the teeth. However only a minority of the participants (9%, n=10) correctly identified decay as destruction of the tooth surface because of bacterial action. When asked to define the word cavities, more than half (68.5%) indicated that cavities were something harmful to teeth, while only about one quarter (27%, n=30) correctly identified cavities as resulting from the decay process. Conclusion: Knowledge disparities related to the terms decay and cavities among caregivers suggest that more education is needed regarding the tooth decay process and factors causing dental caries to ensure timely preventive services are received. Gaps in oral health literacy should be addressed by health care professionals. Dental hygienists are in an ideal position to educate caregivers as well as non-dental health care professionals who provide services to caregivers and children

Ascertaining the Impact of P–12 Engineering Education Initiatives: Student Impact through Teacher Impact

The widespread need to address both science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and STEM workforce development is persistent. Underscored by the Next Generation Science Standards, demand is high for P–12 engineering-centered curricula. TeachEngineering is a free, standards-aligned NSF-funded digital library of more than 1,500 hands-on, design-rich K–12 engineering lessons and activities. Beyond anonymous site-user counts, the impact of the TeachEngineering collection and outreach initiatives on the education of children and their teachers was previously unknown. Thus, the project team wrestled with the question of how to meaningfully ascertain classroom impacts of the digital engineering education library and—more broadly—how to ascertain the impacts of teacher-focused P–12 engineering education initiatives. In this paper, the authors approach the classroom impact question through probing self-reported differentials in: (1) teachers’ confidence in teaching engineering concepts, and (2) changes in their teaching practices as a result of exposure to (and experiences with) K–12 engineering education resources and outreach opportunities. In 2016, four quantitative and qualitative surveys were implemented to probe the impact of the TeachEngineering digital library and outreach on four populations of K–12 teachers’ confidence and practices, including the frequency with which they integrate engineering into their precollege classrooms. Survey results document the teacher experience and perception of using hands-on K–12 engineering curricular materials in the classroom and help create a data-driven understanding of where to best invest future resources. The results suggest that the TeachEngineering curricular resources and outreach initiatives help teachers build confidence in their use of engineering curriculum and pedagogy in K–12 classrooms, impact their teaching practices, and increase their likelihood of teaching engineering in the classroom in the future

Workshop on meibomian gland dysfunction

Federal University of São Paulo Department of OphthalmologyUniversidade de São Paulo epartment of Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology, and Head and Neck SurgerySchepens Eye Research InstituteHarvard Medical School Department of OphthalmologyTear Film & Ocular Surface SocietyUNIFESP, Department of OphthalmologySciEL

Undergraduate Engineers and Teachers: Can Students Be Both?

Today’s college-aged students are graduating into a world that relies on multidisciplinary talents to succeed. Engineering college majors are more likely to find jobs after college that are outside of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, including jobs in healthcare, management, and social services. A survey of engineering undergraduate students at the University of Colorado Boulder in November 2012 indicated a desire by students to simultaneously pursue secondary teacher licensure alongside their engineering degrees: 25 percent ‘‘agreed’’ or ‘‘strongly agreed’’ that they ‘‘would be interested in earning grades 7–12 science or math teaching licenses while [they] earn [their] engineering degrees. As colleges of engineering education, how can we support the success of our students in these multidisciplinary fields post-graduation, including teaching? The University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Engineering and Applied Science in partnership with the School of Education, has developed an innovative program that results in graduates attaining a secondary school STEM teacher license concurrently with an engineering BS degree. This streamlined pathway through engineering educates and prepares a workforce of secondary teachers capable of high-level teaching in multiple STEM subjects—either engineering coupled with science (biology, chemistry, and physics), or engineering coupled with mathematics. These engineers are motivated and inspired to pursue two career routes because they find value and passion for both professions. One study showed that successful mathematics and science teachers ‘‘would have liked to be engineers’’. Teachers expressed that being comfortable and understanding engineering phenomena is a barrier to why they initially did not pursue an engineering career. We are fostering students that develop both an engineering mindset alongside a commitment to giving back through secondary teaching in this program. This research aims to discover if and how students in the engineering + teaching program identify themselves as both an engineering student and as a teaching student. We are exploring why students decided to pursue engineering and teaching and how they plan to use engineering, teaching, or both in their futures. It is important to also understand how we attract students to this program. Given the diverse student experience inherent in this degree program built around passion and desire to combine engineering and teaching, the paper addresses the questions, ‘‘How do engineering knowledge and teaching knowledge intersect for undergraduate engineering students?’’ and ‘‘What challenges exist to navigating an engineering major with a teaching license pathway?’’ Initial survey and focus group data collected this past academic year indicates that students in this degree program identify as both an engineer and a teacher. Using mixed-methods analysis informed by current education research—including quantitative and qualitative survey questions and small focus groups—we explore the ways in which students discovered this program and how they plan to incorporate the two disciplines in their future. We are interested in how engineering students will incorporate the knowledge that they learned in engineering classes into the lesson plans they design for secondary classroom students

Vibroacoustic Response of Residential Housing due to Sonic Boom Exposure: A Summary of two Field Tests

Two experiments have been performed to measure the vibroacoustic response of houses exposed to sonic booms. In 2006, an old home in the base housing area of Edwards Air Force Base, built around 1960 and demolished in 2007, was instrumented with 288 transducers. During a 2007 follow-on test, a newer home in the base housing area, built in 1997, was instrumented with 112 transducers. For each experiment, accelerometers were placed on walls, windows and ceilings in bedrooms of the house to measure the vibration response of the structure. Microphones were placed outside and inside the house to measure the excitation field and resulting interior sound field. The vibroacoustic response of each house was measured for sonic boom amplitudes spanning from 2.4 to 96 Pa (0.05 to 2 lbf/sq ft). The boom amplitudes were systematically varied using a unique dive maneuver of an F/A-18 airplane. In total, the database for both houses contains vibroacoustic response data for 154 sonic booms. In addition, several tests were performed with mechanical shaker excitation of the structure to characterize the forced response of the houses. The purpose of this paper is to summarize all the data from these experiments that are available to the research community, and to compare and contrast the vibroacoustic behavior of these two dissimilar houses

Readiness to Succeed Preparing the Scholar-Practitioner

This report expands on a previous working group’s effort to clarify the alignment of existing scholarship around doctoral education with how students move through the process at Walden University (Salter et al., 2013). Following up on the recommendations in that report, the current working group was charged with understanding students’ readiness or preparedness to move through these stages/phases across the entire student timeline from prospect to graduate. Additionally, the group attempted to map the services currently in place to support that journey while identifying opportunities to improve it

Determinants of motivation to quit in smokers screened for the early detection of lung cancer:a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: The promotion of smoking cessation within lung cancer screening could lead to benefits for smoking-related disease and improve cost-effectiveness of screening. Little is known about how smokers respond to lung cancer screening and how this impacts smoking behaviour. We aimed to understand how lung cancer screening influences individual motivations about smoking, including in those who have stopped smoking since screening.METHODS: Thirty one long-term smokers aged 51-74 took part in semi-structured interviews about smoking. They had been screened with the EarlyCDT-Lung Test (13 positive result; 18 negative) as part of the Early Cancer Detection Test Lung Cancer Scotland Study. They were purposively sampled for interview based on their self-reported post-screening smoking behaviour. Eleven participants had stopped smoking since screening. Verbatim interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.RESULTS: Two key overarching themes were interpretations of screening test results and emotional responses to those interpretations. Participants' understanding of the risk implied by their test result was often inaccurate, for example a negative result interpreted as an 'all-clear' from lung cancer and a positive result as meaning lung cancer would definitely develop. Those interpretations led to emotional responses (fear, shock, worry, relief, indifferSaveence) influencing motivations about smoking. Other themes included a wake-up call causing changes in perceived risk of smoking-related disease, a feeling that now is the time to stop smoking and family influences. There was no clear pattern in smoking motivations in those who received positive or negative test results. Of those who had stopped smoking, some cited screening experiences as the sole motivation, some cited screening along with other coinciding factors, and others cited non-screening reasons. Cues to change were experienced at different stages of the screening process. Some participants indicated they underwent screening to try and stop smoking, while others expressed little or no desire to stop.CONCLUSIONS: We observed complex and individualised motivations about smoking following lung cancer screening. To be most effective, smoking cessation support in this context should explore understanding of screening test results and may need to be highly tailored to individual emotional responses to screening.</p