Early Childhood Caries and Health Professionals' Perception: a Qualitative Research Protocol to Assess Oral Health Stigma (CariStigma)

March 8, 2022 updated by: Hospices Civils de Lyon

Dental caries is the most common non-communicable disease in childhood. Disease management of caries rests on surgical treatment as well as various preventive strategies such as fluoridation, sealants, personal counselling...

With other non-communicable diseases (obesity, overweight…), it has been demonstrated that health professionals' negative perceptions of their patients could affect disease management quality. Concerning dental caries, some data might suggest that discriminating believes and behaviours toward children with dental caries and their families exist in the medical setting. However, oral health related stigma remains an unexplored issue. This study would be the first to our knowledge to specifically address the question of stigmatisation and discrimination of patients with dental caries. The present project is to conduct an exploratory study focusing on perceptions and attitudes of health professionals toward children with early childhood caries and their parents.

The questions the study aims to answer are: (i) What are health professionals 'perceptions of children with ECC and their family? And (ii) according to health professionals, do these perceptions influence the quality of their care? We hypothesize that some practitioners have negative opinions on children with ECC and their parents, affecting the quality of their care, especially concerning oral health prevention.

Method: Individual semi-structured interviews will be conducted among dentists (general or pediatric), general practitioners and paediatricians.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Anticipated)

30

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • France
      • Rhone-Alpes Region, France
        • As much as possible, interviews will be performed face to face at a location convenient to the respondent or using videoconference due to COVID19 pandemic context.
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Participants' selection will be conducted on a semirandom basis, directly from the network of the research team members and from regional professional listings of each specialty (general practitioners, pediatricians, general dentists, pediatric dentists). The sample will be constituted with a maximum variation in age, gender, years in practice, occupation and types of practice (solo, group or interdisciplinary team).

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • speak French fluently
  • practice with children as a dentist (general or pediatric), a general practitioner, or a paediatrician
  • work in hospital or ambulatory facility

Exclusion Criteria:

  • NA

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Observational Models: Other
  • Time Perspectives: Cross-Sectional

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Health professionals practicing with children

To participate, health professionals will have to speak French fluently, practice with children as a dentist (general or pediatric), a general practitioner, or a paediatrician and work in hospital or ambulatory facility. As paediatricians and general practitioners meet the child regularly during the first 6 years of life for medical follow-up, they are key stakeholders in the early detection of caries, referrals to dentist and counselling.

The participants will be recruited using a semi-random sampling method. The sample will be constituted with a maximum variation in age, gender, years in practice, occupation and types of practice (solo, group or interdisciplinary team).
Other: Exploring health professionals' perceptions of patients with ECC using semi-structured interviews

Following a literature review on the topic of children with ECC and their family, a guidebook will be built by main investigators. Several test interviews will be conduct to ensure that guidebook is adapted, and that the interviewer is enough trained.

Interview will be conducted by one or two of the main investigators. As much as possible, they will be performed face to face or using videoconference due to COVID19 pandemic context. All the interviews will be audio recorded. The interviewer will take notes including non-verbal communication; and will adopt an active listening position.

After collecting respondents' characteristics (age, gender, profession, exercise duration, type of practice), the subsequent themes will be explored: disease perception, educational context's responsibility, barriers and facilitators to family behaviour changes, health professional's emotional consequences.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Health professionals' representations of children with dental caries and their family
Time Frame: The main outcome will be collected during the interviews.
Individual semi-structured interviews will be conducted among dentists, general practitioners and paediatricians to explore health professionals' representations of children with dental caries and their family. All the interviews will be audio recorded and transcribed into verbatims. Verbatims will be analysed using the N'Vivo qualitative analysis software. The thematic analysis of the data will then be carried out using the 6-steps method of Braun and Clarke. A transversal analysis will be conducted by classifying the verbatims of each interview into themes and main theme.
The main outcome will be collected during the interviews.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Hospices Civils de Lyon

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Anticipated)

June 1, 2022

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2022

Study Completion (Anticipated)

September 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 8, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 8, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

March 17, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 17, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 8, 2022

Last Verified

March 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 69HCL21_1182

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Subscribe