GRIN: A Health Equity-Centered Oral Health Training for Community Health Workers

Abstract

Tooth decay is one of the nation’s greatest unmet needs experienced by children, especially children in low-income and minority communities. Guardians’ low oral health literacy is one risk factor that predicts tooth decay and related negative outcomes, such as negative self-esteem, school absences, and financial strain, for parents of Black children and adolescents, in low-resource households. Evidence suggests that community health worker (CHW) interventions effectively reduce health disparities and improve health outcomes. The Guardians Receiving Information through Navigators (GRIN) training for CHWs aimed to increase CHWs’ knowledge, self-efficacy, and intentions to conduct oral health care outreach to low-resource Black guardians.

We collected primary quantitative data from June 2022 to September 2022 from over 100 CHWs in a randomized, two-group, pretest/posttest design. Participants in the treatment group reviewed two 30-minute video modules on oral health care for children and adolescents before answering the posttest survey.

The sample included 107 community health workers: 88.7% female and 32.7% Black. While there was no difference between control and treatment group participants’ knowledge and self-efficacy at pretest, the treatment group had significantly higher scores in knowledge (p

Findings indicate that the GRIN training has the potential to prepare CHWs to (1) conduct oral healthcare outreach, (2) emphasize the importance of oral health among their communities, and (3) encourage Black guardians to seek oral healthcare for their youth. These data suggest that CHWs who completed the GRIN training are better prepared to conduct oral health care outreach to low-income Black guardians of children and adolescents.

Keywords

Oral health, Community health worker, health disparities, maternal and child health, and health equity

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GRIN: A Health Equity-Centered Oral Health Training for Community Health Workers

Tooth decay is one of the nation’s greatest unmet needs experienced by children, especially children in low-income and minority communities. Guardians’ low oral health literacy is one risk factor that predicts tooth decay and related negative outcomes, such as negative self-esteem, school absences, and financial strain, for parents of Black children and adolescents, in low-resource households. Evidence suggests that community health worker (CHW) interventions effectively reduce health disparities and improve health outcomes. The Guardians Receiving Information through Navigators (GRIN) training for CHWs aimed to increase CHWs’ knowledge, self-efficacy, and intentions to conduct oral health care outreach to low-resource Black guardians.

We collected primary quantitative data from June 2022 to September 2022 from over 100 CHWs in a randomized, two-group, pretest/posttest design. Participants in the treatment group reviewed two 30-minute video modules on oral health care for children and adolescents before answering the posttest survey.

The sample included 107 community health workers: 88.7% female and 32.7% Black. While there was no difference between control and treatment group participants’ knowledge and self-efficacy at pretest, the treatment group had significantly higher scores in knowledge (p

Findings indicate that the GRIN training has the potential to prepare CHWs to (1) conduct oral healthcare outreach, (2) emphasize the importance of oral health among their communities, and (3) encourage Black guardians to seek oral healthcare for their youth. These data suggest that CHWs who completed the GRIN training are better prepared to conduct oral health care outreach to low-income Black guardians of children and adolescents.