526 - The Effect of Video Counseling on Educating Parents on ECC

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of video counseling for educating parents on facts regarding early childhood caries (ECC) in lay terms.

Materials and

Methods: Parents completed a pre-video survey assessing baseline knowledge on ECC.  Following completion of the pre-video survey, parents viewed a 5-minute video in English created by Columbia University’s My Smile Buddy Program, containing information on ECC.  The parents then completed a post-video survey with identical questions from the pre-video survey to assess learning.  The pre-video and post-video survey answers were scored on the number of responses correct and compared using a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test.

Results: For 10 out of 12 survey statements, there were statistically significant (α = 0.05) improvements in score among the participants.  The improvement in score post-video was the highest for statements describing caries as infectious,  "Tooth decay is an infectious disease" and "A mom can pass cavity-causing germs to her child."  The improvement in score post-video was lowest for "Only some kids get tooth decay" and "Brushing twice a day with fluoride toothpaste can prevent tooth decay."  The parents generally had correct understanding of prevention measures prior to viewing the video. Overall, 24% of the post-video survey responses were changed to the correct answer after viewing the video.

Conclusion: Video counseling can be an effective tool for parental learning of ECC.