KDHRC Awarded New SBIR Funding for Oral Health Education Program

In exciting news to kick off project work in the new year, KDHRC has been awarded funding for Phase II of our SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program Guardians Receiving Information through Navigators (GRIN). GRIN is a health-equity oral health education program for community health workers to increase their knowledge, positive attitudes and beliefs, perceived self-efficacy, and intentions to conduct oral health outreach to low-income Black guardians of children and adolescents.

Did you know that minority and low-income populations have disproportionately high levels of tooth decay? Because of such childhood oral health disparities and health inequity, GRIN equips community health workers (CHWs) with the knowledge and skills to deliver culturally appropriate pediatric tooth decay prevention and oral health outreach to low-resource Black guardians of children and adolescents from ages 0-18.

Evaluation of GRIN Phase I showed that GRIN participation is associated with significant increases in knowledge, self-efficacy, and intentions of CHWs to conduct oral health outreach in their communities. Further, we’ve had the opportunity to share the exciting GRIN Phase I findings in a research brief in KDHRC’s “Informing Public Health” series and at the 2023 National Oral Health Conference and the 2023 Georgia Public Health Association Conference. Read more in our research brief here: https://www.kdhrc.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/January_2023_Number_19.pdf

We look forward to expanding on our Phase I work in Phase II by expanding the content from two modules to seven modules, creating video vignettes to accompany the modules, and adding interactive branching scenarios for CHWs to practice the skills they learn in the GRIN modules.