Early Head Start, Pediatric Dental Use, and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life.

The objective of the study was to examine the mediating effect of child dental use on the effectiveness of North Carolina Early Head Start (EHS) in improving oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). In total, 479 parents of children enrolled in EHS and 699 parents of Medicaid-matched children were interviewed at baseline when children were approximately 10 mo old and 24 mo later. In this quasi-experimental study, mediation analysis was performed using the counterfactual framework analysis, which employed 2 logit models with random effects: 1) for the mediator as a function of the treatment and covariates and 2) for the outcome as a function of the treatment, mediator, and covariates. The covariates were baseline dental OHRQoL, dental need, survey language, and a propensity score. We used in-person computer-assisted, structured interviews to collect information on demographic characteristics and dental use and to administer the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale, a measure of OHRQoL. Dental use had a mediation effect in the undesired direction with a 2-percentage point increase in the probability of any negative impact to OHRQoL (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.3%-3.9%). Even with higher dental use by EHS participants, the probability of any negative impact to OHRQoL was approximately 8 percentage points lower if an individual were moved from the non-EHS group to the EHS group (95% CI, -13.9% to -1.2%). EHS increases child dental use, which worsens family OHRQoL. However, EHS is associated with improved OHRQoL overall.