Objectives: To analyse the effectiveness of targeted stakeholder engagement strategies and the impact they have on antenatal referrals, oral health admission, attendance and education of pregnant women in a rural public dental clinic.
Method: Key stakeholders (obstetric trained general practitioners [GPs] and midwives) were educated and motivated to refer pregnant women to the rural public dental clinic via priority referral pathways. A 10-month pre- and post-intervention period of oral health assessments and treatments was compared and contrasted.
Design: Quasi-experimental study.
Setting: A rural health service in the Loddon Mallee region, Victoria.
Participants: Local pregnant women, 18 years of age or older, eligible for public dental care.
Main outcome measures: Increased oral health admission, attendance and education of pregnant women.
Results: Active engagement with key stakeholders significantly increased the oral health referral, admission and attendance of eligible antenatal women. Prior to the intervention, only 15.04% of eligible antenatal women sought oral health treatment, in comparison with 40.37% post-intervention. Of the 62 women referred, 44 actively received dental care.
Conclusion: Active engagement with key stakeholders has demonstrated a clinically effective method of increasing antenatal referrals of socially disadvantaged women to a rural public dental clinic. Further collaboration between healthcare professionals can improve the oral health admission rates, attendance and education of antenatal women and their children.
Keywords: antenatal; dental; dental health; dentistry; oral health; pregnancy; women's health.
© 2022 National Rural Health Alliance Ltd.