Factors influencing Mexican-americans engagement in oral health behaviors

Background. Oral health among Mexican Americans (MAs) is often poor. MAs appear to develop a set of norms blending poor preventive care with U.S. norms of high calorie sugary snacks and drinks. This phenomenon is not well understood. Whether, how, and why MAs engage in preventive (self and professional) and urgent treatment remain equally ill-defined.

Methods. We sought to better understand the pervasive oral health issues affecting MAs by creating a culturally appropriate structured interview, following an established behavioral theory, supplemented with standardized questions from the NIDCR/CDC Data Resource Center (e.g. recognizing treatment needs, ascertaining patterns of dental visits, non-clinical factors mediating dental care seeking). The resulting protocol was implemented with adult and adolescent MAs in English or Spanish. Qualitative analysis examined engagement in preventive and therapeutic care and identified factors influencing engagement.

Results. A total of 33 interviews were completed. Analyses of discourse indicates that MAs do not consistently adhere to preventive oral health behaviors; and when MAs access dental care systems, it is often reactive and restricted to an emergency clinical situation. Norms, beliefs, barriers, and supports related to these suboptimal behaviors, as well as three health-positive activities were identified and will be discussed.

Conclusion. MAs frequently engage in suboptimal oral health behaviors. Perceived cost is a key factor, suggesting that intervention efforts be crafted around actual/perceived cost and access to care. Vanity/self-image were also identified as potential motivating factors. Future work should refine instruments and develop quantities models with larger samples to better inform future interventions.