Public health officials' perceptions of dental caries preventive methods

The Wisconsin Division of Health has traditionally promoted the implementation of cost-effective dental public health caries prevention programs through the cooperation of communities, schools, and local health agencies. Because of the opportunities created by the division's goal to enhance the capabilities of local public health agencies and the difficult program-priority decisions produced by diminishing federal funding, an evaluation of the state's dental public health promotional efforts appeared appropriate. In 1982, as part of this evaluation process, an opinion survey of dental caries prevention methods was distributed to local public health officials. The survey instrument consisted of seven questions that ranked caries-prevention measures. The questionnaire return rate was 85 percent, or 104 responses. Data were arrayed by frequency of rank, composite-rank score, and overall rank. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to determine the significance of composite-score data. The results of the survey indicated that 1) local public health officials perceive consumer-passive and school-based caries-preventive methods as the most effective and cost-beneficial means of preventing tooth decay in school-age children, 2) this knowledge could permit them to act as informed dental public health advocates, and 3) this knowledge may account for the implementation and maintenance of cost-effective public health caries-prevention programs throughout Wisconsin.