Head Start Oral Health Initiative

Reports

Good oral health is essential to general health and well-being. Yet many children have unmet needs for dental care. In 2006, the Office of Head Start funded 52 Head Start, Early Head Start, and Migrant/Seasonal Head Start programs to implement an oral health initiative to improve the oral health services provided to pregnant women and children from birth to age 5. Grantees are designing a diverse set of interventions tailored to the needs of their target population.

Mathematica's evaluation is documenting grantees' implementation experiences and challenges, identifying promising program models and service delivery strategies, assessing the feasibility of replication or expansion of the models in other programs and communities, and disseminating information about lessons learned to the broader Head Start community. The primary research questions are:

• What is the community context of the Oral Health Initiative?
• What are the characteristics of the families and children who receive services?
• What program models are grantees developing to improve the oral health care delivery systems for Head Start children and pregnant women?
• What clinical services are Head Start families receiving through the initiative?
• What nonclinic services are Head Start families receiving?
• What community partnerships are grantees forming to increase Head Start families' access to oral health care services?
• Can the models and service delivery practices developed by grantees be sustained in the community after grant funding ends?

The evaluation is collecting and analyzing data from three main sources: (1) telephone interviews with all 52 grantee directors, (2) a web-based management information system designed for use by the grantees, and (3) site visits to a subset of 16 grantees. Altarum (formerly Health Systems Research, Inc.) is a subcontractor on the project. The study is funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Reports

"Oral Health Promotion, Prevention, and Treatment Strategies for Head Start Families: Early Findings from the Oral Health Initiative Evaluation. Volume I: Final Interim Report" (September 2007)

"Oral Health Promotion, Prevention, and Treatment Strategies for Head Start Families: Early Findings from the Oral Health Initiative Evaluation. Volume II: Site Profiles" (September 2007)

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