Analysis of Oral Health Data from Aban Aya Youth Project

A school-based health education curriculum (including a module on oral health) was developed and implemented starting in grade five through grade 8 in four at-risk, urban predominetely African American schools in a large midwestern city, as a part of a study to prevent risk-taking behaviors in urban pre-teens. Eight schools of similar demographics received an intervention designed to reduce students' risk-taking behaviors (i.e., violence, drugs and unsafe sex). A survey was administered at each grade level to assess children's attitudes towards health behaviors (i.e. nutrition, exercise), their tooth-brushing behavior, and other important factors in an urban at-risk environment, such as students' locus of control, sense of self-esteem, optimism, and exposures to violence and gang activities. In addition, parallel questions were asked on parents' surveys that were administered at each wave of data collection. This is a proposal to analyze both children and parents' data in order to: 1. Evaluate the effectiveness of the school-based oral health educational program in an at-risk, African American school environment; 2. Examine predictors of tooth-brushing and other oral health behaviors among these children; and 3. Examine the longitudinal stability of tooth-brushing habits in this group. The significance of this study is that it will provide much-needed information to understand oral health behavior of at risk children in an understudied group of African Americans.