431 - Parental Perception of COVID-19 Screening Methods for Dental Clinic Visits

Parental Perception of COVID-19 Screening Methods for Dental Clinic Visits (Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora, CO)

Purpose: The purpose was to gauge parental perception of the implemented COVID-19 screening process for all patients prior to entering Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO).

Methods: A survey was distributed to 70 parents of existing pediatric patients at Children’s Hospital Colorado Dental Center. The survey included questions about parents’ perceptions of the CHCO screening process, their child’s caries experience, and oral health beliefs of parents.

Results: Median composite scores for COVID-19 category and all Expanded Health Belief Model (EHBM) sub-categories except “Barriers” are highest for those that strongly agree and lowest for those that do not agree (i.e., strongly disagree or neither agree nor disagree). These values are statistically significant for COVID-19 category, EHBM, and EHBM sub-categories of “Self-Efficacy” and “Benefits”. Median composite scores for EHBM and COVID-19 categories were higher among the group that reported no history of cavities than those with a reported history of cavities. Pearson R analysis shows a positive linear relationship between the COVID-19 composite score and EHBM composite score. It is significant in both groups with and without a history of cavities.

Conclusion: There is a positive trend showing increasing agreement that the COVID-19 screening process is successful in keeping patients of the Dental Center safe from COVID-19 and more favorable dental health beliefs among parents. Parents of patients without cavities had more favorable health beliefs and positive perceptions of the COVID-19 screening process. Overall, parents had positive perceptions regarding the COVID-19 screening process.