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Article: Dental Care-Seeking and Information Acquisition During Pregnancy: A Qualitative Study

TitleDental Care-Seeking and Information Acquisition During Pregnancy: A Qualitative Study
Authors
KeywordsAntenatal care
Dental care seeking
Information behaviour
Oral health
Pregnancy
Issue Date2019
PublisherMolecular Diversity Preservation International. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.mdpi.org/ijerph
Citation
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019, v. 16 n. 14, p. article no. e2621 How to Cite?
AbstractBackground: Pregnant women are at risk of oral health problems. This qualitative study aims to understand dental care-seeking behaviours of pregnant women and their oral health-related information acquisition, to identify barriers to and motivators for, dental visits, and further explore their expectations and possible strategies to improve oral health care during pregnancy. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 pregnant women (after 32 gestational weeks) enrolled in the antenatal care programme in a public hospital in Hong Kong. Two main areas of interest were probed: Dental care-seeking behaviour and oral health information acquisition. Their expectations and suggestions on oral health care service for pregnant women were also explored. An inductive thematic approach was adopted to analyse the data. Results: Pregnant women’s dental care-seeking behaviour was deterred by some internal factors, such as misunderstandings on oral health, and priority on other issues over oral health. External factors such as inconvenient access to dental service during pregnancy also affected their care-seeking behaviours. Oral health information was passively absorbed by pregnant women through mass media and the social environment, which sometimes led to confusion. Oral health information acquisition from antenatal institutions and care providers was rare. Greater attention was paid to dental visit when they obtained proper information from previous dental visit experience or family members. A potential strategy to improve oral health care suggested by the interviewees is to develop a health care system strengthened by inter-professional (antenatal-dental) collaboration. Efficient oral health information delivery, convenient access to dental service, and improved ‘quality’ of dental care targeting the needs of pregnant women were identified as possible approaches to improve dental care for this population. Conclusion: Dental care-seeking behaviour during pregnancy was altered by various internal and external factors. A lack of, or conflict between, information sources result in confusion that can restrict utilisation of dental service. Integrating dental care into antenatal service would be a viable way to improve dental service utilisation. © 2019 by the authors.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/274800
ISSN
2019 Impact Factor: 2.849
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.808
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorLiu, P-
dc.contributor.authorWen, W-
dc.contributor.authorYu, K-
dc.contributor.authorGao, X-
dc.contributor.authorWong, MCM-
dc.date.accessioned2019-09-10T02:29:01Z-
dc.date.available2019-09-10T02:29:01Z-
dc.date.issued2019-
dc.identifier.citationInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019, v. 16 n. 14, p. article no. e2621-
dc.identifier.issn1661-7827-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/274800-
dc.description.abstractBackground: Pregnant women are at risk of oral health problems. This qualitative study aims to understand dental care-seeking behaviours of pregnant women and their oral health-related information acquisition, to identify barriers to and motivators for, dental visits, and further explore their expectations and possible strategies to improve oral health care during pregnancy. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 pregnant women (after 32 gestational weeks) enrolled in the antenatal care programme in a public hospital in Hong Kong. Two main areas of interest were probed: Dental care-seeking behaviour and oral health information acquisition. Their expectations and suggestions on oral health care service for pregnant women were also explored. An inductive thematic approach was adopted to analyse the data. Results: Pregnant women’s dental care-seeking behaviour was deterred by some internal factors, such as misunderstandings on oral health, and priority on other issues over oral health. External factors such as inconvenient access to dental service during pregnancy also affected their care-seeking behaviours. Oral health information was passively absorbed by pregnant women through mass media and the social environment, which sometimes led to confusion. Oral health information acquisition from antenatal institutions and care providers was rare. Greater attention was paid to dental visit when they obtained proper information from previous dental visit experience or family members. A potential strategy to improve oral health care suggested by the interviewees is to develop a health care system strengthened by inter-professional (antenatal-dental) collaboration. Efficient oral health information delivery, convenient access to dental service, and improved ‘quality’ of dental care targeting the needs of pregnant women were identified as possible approaches to improve dental care for this population. Conclusion: Dental care-seeking behaviour during pregnancy was altered by various internal and external factors. A lack of, or conflict between, information sources result in confusion that can restrict utilisation of dental service. Integrating dental care into antenatal service would be a viable way to improve dental service utilisation. © 2019 by the authors.-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherMolecular Diversity Preservation International. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.mdpi.org/ijerph-
dc.relation.ispartofInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.subjectAntenatal care-
dc.subjectDental care seeking-
dc.subjectInformation behaviour-
dc.subjectOral health-
dc.subjectPregnancy-
dc.titleDental Care-Seeking and Information Acquisition During Pregnancy: A Qualitative Study-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.identifier.emailLiu, P: peiliu@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.emailGao, X: gaoxl@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.emailWong, MCM: mcmwong@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.authorityLiu, P=rp02432-
dc.identifier.authorityGao, X=rp01509-
dc.identifier.authorityWong, MCM=rp00024-
dc.description.naturepublished_or_final_version-
dc.identifier.doi10.3390/ijerph16142621-
dc.identifier.pmid31340485-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-85070516202-
dc.identifier.hkuros303038-
dc.identifier.volume16-
dc.identifier.issue14-
dc.identifier.spagearticle no. e2621-
dc.identifier.epagearticle no. e2621-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000480659300174-
dc.publisher.placeSwitzerland-
dc.identifier.issnl1660-4601-

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