Head Start improves access to dental care: report
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Posted June 10, 2005 |
By Craig Palmer Washington — Head Start parents see positive and significant dental impact from the program aimed at giving low-income pre-school children a leg up the educational ladder.
The Bush administration June 9 released initial findings from a congressionally-mandated study on cognitive, social-emotional and health impacts of Head Start on 3- and 4-year-old children, and one of the reported bright spots is improved access to dental care.
"The consistent, and relatively large, impact on children's receipt of dental care is particularly important in light of numerous studies that have documented substantial disparities in the level of dental services received by low-income and minority children, who are most at risk of having untreated cavities compared with other children," the report said. The proportion of Head Start children who received dental care exceeded a national goal set for the year 2010.
The study found that Head Start had significant impact on access to care for Hispanic children in both age groups and positive impact for 3-year-old children with one or more special needs such as disabilities. "For children in both the 3- and 4-year-old group, a relatively large and statistically significant impact was found on the receipt of dental care, i.e., Head Start children were more likely to have received dental care than non-Head Start children."
The analysis of Head Start's impact on children's health is based solely on reports from parents, the study said. Parents were asked if the child had ever seen a dentist. "No direct measurement of children's actual health status, or their receipt of health care services, was undertaken for this study."
Head Start produced small to moderate impacts in areas such as pre-reading, pre-writing and vocabulary and in health and parent practice domains, said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. However, these impacts did not close the gap between low-income children in the Head Start program and the general population of 3- and 4-year-olds. There were no significant impacts for 3- and 4-year-olds in early mathematics, oral comprehension and social competencies, the study said.
The press release and report are posted online at the HHS Web site. The study conducted by Westat and the Urban Institute will continue through 2006. Since its inception in 1965, Head Start's goal has been to boost school readiness of low-income children.
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