Institute for Community Research
Good Oral Health: A Collaboration With Older Adults

Good Oral Health: A Collaboration With Older Adults

Good oral health project

Good Oral Health: a Bi-level Intervention to Improve Older Adult Oral Health

The goal of GOH is to improve oral health self-management among older adults in senior housing. The current study is based on two other earlier projects to build the base for the project and see if it worked. In this five year study, a team of researchers, health educators dentists and dental hygienists from ICR and the School of Dental Medicine will collaborate with residents of six large senior housing buildings in Greater Hartford. Working with the building management we will recruit English and Spanish speaking residents into a yearlong program of face to face education and campaigns tailored to their oral health concerns and ability to brush and floss their teeth. This framework is based on theories of norms and behavior change that focus on intention, self-efficacy and skill to change. In three buildings, we will start with personalized education followed by an oral health campaign. In three other buildings, we will start with a campaign followed by personalized education. To evaluate outcomes we will collect information on beliefs, knowledge, worries and concerns, intentions to brush and floss, and skills, as well as their gum health and tooth plaque before they enter the program, and after the first and second phases. In this way we will be able to learn which is more effective, the face to face intervention or the campaign in improving oral health, and to see whether it makes a difference if the face to face intervention precedes or follows the campaign phase. We will do a final clinical assessment of gum health and plaque at the end. Approximately 500 residents will be involved in the program over the next five years.

Abstract

Please read the project abstract here.

Staffing Structure

Principal Investigators
Susan Reisine, Ph.D.
University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine

Jean Schensul, Ph.D.
Institute for Community Research

Co-Investigators

Ruth Goldblatt, D.M.D.
University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine

Joanna Douglass, D.M.D.
University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, Connecticut Health Foundation

Kim Radda, MA, RN
Institute for Community Research

Key Implementers

Colleen Foster-Bey, M.Ed.
Coordinator, Intervention
Institute for Community Research

Zahira Medina,
Coordinator Evaluation Data Collection
Institute for Community Research

Ruth Hernandez, M.A.
Interventionist
UCONN Dept. Sociology, Institute for Community Research

Statisticians

Jianghong Li, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Researcher/statistician
Institute for Community Research

Jamie Grady, Ph.D.
University of Connecticut School of Medicine

Clinicians

Rita Bodea, RDH, BS
Amauri Barbosa, RDH

Presentations

Invited oral session, organized by Jean Schensul, ICR and David Clark, NIDCR entitled Addressing Disparities in Older Adult Oral Health Research, Intervention, information access and access to care, . Annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, New Orleans, LA. Tuesday, Nov. 18th, 2:30 PM, 2014

Reisine S, Schensul JJ, Goldblatt R Radda K, Foster-Bey C, Acosta-Glynn C, Hernandez R, Jacobs J, Ioannidou E, Cuadra D, Miron L. Oral hygiene improvements among older/disabled adults in a community intervention, American Association for Dental Research, March 20, 2014.

Reisine S, Schensul JJ. Developing the basis for an efficacy trial to improve oral health self-management among older adults in income-supported housing, University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Jackson Laboratories Symposium on Aging, March 19-20, 2014, Storrs, CT.

Schensul JJ, Reisine S, Radda K, Foster-Bey C, Coman E, Acosta-Glynn, Goldblatt, R. Developing an oral health intervention for implementation with diverse older adults that addresses fidelity, fit and tailoring, American Public Health Association, Boston, MA, November, 2013.

Khan K, Ruby B, Reisine S, Schensul J. Oral health literacy in older adults in a dental clinic. International Association for Dental Research Annual meetings, March, 2013, Seattle WA.

Radda KE, Schensul JJ, Foster-Bey C, Acosta-Glynn C, Goldblatt R, Reisine S. Building research infrastructure to decrease oral health disparities among vulnerable older adults. NIH 2012 Summit on the Science of Eliminating Health Disparities, December, 2012.

Reisine S, Schensul JJ. Changing oral health norms and hygiene practices among vulnerable older adults living in publicly funded senior housing. NIH 2012 Summit on the Science of Eliminating Health Disparities, December, 2012.

Foster-Bey C, Acosta-Glynn C, Hernandez R, Radda KE, Schensul JJ, Goldblatt R, Harper-Gulley R, Murphy C, Reisine S. Empowering older adults to reduce oral health disparities through the development of their own health education materials. NIH 2012 Summit on the Science of Eliminating Health Disparities, December, 2012.

Schensul JJ, Radda K, Vazquez E, Goldblatt R, Reisine S, Foster-Bey C, Acosta-Glynn C, Murphy C. Capacitating older adults for health leadership through co-construction of health education materials, American Public Health Association, San Francisco, CA, October, 2012.

Reisine S, Goldblatt R, Jensen J, Harper-Gulley R, Radda K, Schensul JJ. Building collaborative research infrastructure to reduce oral health disparities among low income older adults, American Dental Education Association, San Diego, 2011.

Radda K, Schensul JJ. Building alliances for research with older adults, Society for Applied Anthropology, Seattle, WA, March, 2011.

Schensul, J. Kim Radda, R.N., M.A., Julie Robison, Ph.D, Robyn Harper-Gulley, Susan Reisine, Ph.D Colleen Foster-Bey, M.Ed, Clara Acosta-Glynn, M.S.W., George Kuchel, M.D. Building research relationships with residents of senior housing . UConn Center on Aging, April, 2011.

Reisine S, Schensul JJ, Harper-Gulley R, Goldblatt R, Foster-Bey B, Acosta-Glynn C, Radda K. Project GOH (Good Oral Health) building collaborative research infrastructure to reduce oral health disparities , UConn Center on Aging, April, 2011.

Reisine S, Schensul J, Harper-Gulley R, Goldblatt R, Foster-Bey C, Acosta-Glynn C, Radda K. Improving oral health among vulnerable low income senior housing residents in central Connecticut, Gerontological Society of America, Boston, MA, November 21, 2011.

Murphy C, Reisine S, Foster-Bey C, Acosta Glynn C, Goldblatt R, Harper-Gulley R, Radda K, Schensul J. Development of oral health educational materials for low income residential communities, Student Research Day, Farmington, CT, February, 2012.