Calling Upon Existing Infrastructures in Seattle’s Hispanic Community to Propagate a Preventative Early Childhood Caries (ECC) Message
This research proposal will examine how leveraging community intermediaries through digital media can increase awareness of preventative dental health measures among low-income Hispanic mothers of young children in Seattle. The objective of the research is twofold. First, it will support the development of compelling content, including messaging and imagery. Second, it will identify the most effective tools and forums for distributing content.
Our initial research delves into the issue of ECC, the target audience (low-income minority mothers), and the successes of past public health campaigns. Taking these findings into account, we’ll recommend an eight-week pilot program targeting Hispanics in Seattle. The pilot will be framed with focus groups and surveys to formulate the best practices for selecting intermediaries, incentivizing them, and measuring the impact of their efforts on influencing low-income Hispanic mothers in the area.
Ultimately, we’ll illustrate that leveraging existing community infrastructures to disseminate information is the most culturally competent way to increase awareness of preventative dental health measures among Hispanics in Seattle.
Although it would not be appropriate to assume the findings from this pilot research can be generalized to at-risk communities across the country, they can be used as a strong foundation to inform the future development of a broader dental public health campaign.
Research Question
How can leveraging intermediaries through online engagement drive increased awareness of preventative dental health measures among low-income Hispanic mothers in Seattle?
ResearchProposal_DentalPublicHealth
