title: The reliability and validity of the RAPIDD scale: readiness assessment of parents concerning infant dental decay.
abstract: This study assessed the instrument, Readiness Assessment of Parents concerning Infant Dental Decay (RAPIDD), as a measure of parental readiness to change children's dental behaviors. The 38-item instrument based on four constructs (Openness to Health Information, Valuing Dental Health, Convenience/Difficulty, Child Permissiveness) was administered to a random sample of parents of 6-to-36 month old children on Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, USA. Alpha values for each construct's internal consistency ranged from 0.51 to 0.75. Correlations were found with feeding (e.g., Convenience/Difficulty and receiving bottle (r = .24, p < 0.01)) and oral hygiene (e.g., Valuing Dental Health and tooth-cleaning (r = .27, p < 0.01)). Parental responses were used to categorize respondents into precontemplators (16 percent), contemplators (77 percent), and actions (6.7 percent). This categorization was associated with the number of decalcified and decayed surfaces (alpha 2 = 34.8, p = 0.04; alpha 2 = 65.7, p < 0.01). This suggests that parental readiness is associated with infant dental health and that most parents would be willing to contemplate prevention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Washington, Box 357475, Seattle, WA 98195-7475, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weinstein
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Riedy
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D001903:Bottle Feeding; D001942:Breast Feeding; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008297:Male; D008849:Micronesia; D009035:Mothers; D009909:Oral Health; D009910:Oral Hygiene; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates