Behavioral community psychology: encouraging low-income parents to seek dental care for their children.
The present study examined the effectiveness and cost efficiency of three different techniques to encourage low-income rural parents to seek dental care for their children. The families of 51 children who needed immediate dental care (determined by dental screening at a local school) were placed into three matched groups and randomly assigned to the treatment conditions: One Prompt (Note Only), Three Prompt (Note, Telephone Contact, Home Visit), and One Prompt plus $5 Incentive- The Three Prompt and One Prompt plus $5 Incentive were significantly more effective in initiating dental visits than the Note-Only procedure. Not only was the One Prompt plus $5 Incentive technique effective in producing a slightly larger percentage of initial dental visits compared to the Three-Prompt technique, it also produced a significantly larger number of followup visits. Furthermore, the cost-effectiveness analysis showed the Incentive condition to be less costly than the Three-Prompt condition in encouraging initial dental visits.
D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003729:Dental Care; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010290:Parents; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors