Background: The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of a written invitation letter to the spouses of new antenatal clinic attendees on attendance by couples and on male partner acceptance of HIV testing at subsequent antenatal clinic visits.Methods: The trial was conducted with 1060 new attendees from October 2009 to February 2010 in an antenatal clinic at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, Mbale District, eastern Uganda. The intervention comprised an invitation letter delivered to the spouses of new antenatal attendees, while the control group received an information letter, a leaflet, concerning antenatal care. The primary outcome measure was the proportion of pregnant women who attended antenatal care with their male partners during a follow‐up period of four weeks. Eligible pregnant women were randomly assigned to the intervention or non‐intervention groups using a randomization sequence, which was computer generated utilizing a random sequence generator (RANDOM ORG) that employed a simple randomization procedure. Respondents, health workers and research assistants were masked to group assignments.Results: The trial was completed with 530 women enrolled in each group. Participants were analyzed as originally assigned (intention to treat). For the primary outcome, the percentage of trial participants who attended the antenatal clinic with their partners were 16.2% (86/530) and 14.2% (75/530) in the intervention and non‐intervention groups, respectively (OR = 1.2; 95% CI: 0.8, 1.6). For the secondary outcome, most of the 161 male partners attended the antenatal clinic; 82 of 86 (95%) in the intervention group and 68 of 75 (91%) in the non‐intervention group were tested for HIV (OR = 2.1; 95% CI: 0.6 to 7.5).Conclusions: The effect of the intervention and the control on couple antenatal attendance was similar. In addition, the trial demonstrated that a simple intervention, such as a letter to the spouse, could increase couple antenatal clinic attendance by 10%. Significantly, the majority of male partners who attended the antenatal clinic accepted HIV testing. Therefore, to further evaluate this simple and cost‐effective intervention method, adequately powered studies are required to assess its effectiveness in increasing partner participation in antenatal clinics and the programme for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01144234.

Information on oral health-related quality of life, in addition to clinical measures, is essential for healthcare policy makers to promote oral health resources and address oral health needs.

To determine the impact of oral diseases on everyday life, measures of oral quality of life are needed. In complementing traditional disease-based measures, they assess the need for oral care to evaluate oral health care programs and management of treatment. To assess the reliability and validity of the Oral Impact of Daily Performance (OIDP) and the short-form Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) among high school students in Xi’an, the capital of Shanxi province, China. Cross-sectional one-stage stratified random cluster sample using high schools as the primary sampling unit. Students completed self-administered questionnaires at school. The survey included the OHIP-14 and OIDP inventories, translated and culturally adapted for China, and global oral health and socio-behavioral measures. A total of 5,608 students participated in the study, with a 93% response rate (mean age 17.2, SD 0.8, 52% females, 45.3% urban residents).The proportion experiencing at least one impact (at any frequency) during the previous six months was 62.9% for the OHIP-14 and 45.8% for the OIDP. Cronbach’s alpha measured internal consistency at 0.85 for OHIP-14 and 0.75 for OIDP while Cohen’s kappa varied between 0.27 and 0.58 for OHIP-14 items and between 0.23 and 0.65 for OIDP items. Kappa scores for the OHIP-14 and OIDP additive scores were 0.52 and 0.66, respectively. Both measures varied systematically and in the expected direction, with global oral health measures showing criterion validity. The correlation between OIDP and OHIP-14 was rs +0.65. That both measures varied systematically with socio-behavioral factors indicates construct validity. Both the OIDP and OHIP-14 inventories had reasonable reliability and construct validity in relation to subjective global oral health indicators among adolescents attending high schools in China and thus appear to be useful oral health –related quality of life measures in this context. Overall, the OHIP-14 and OIDP performed equally well, although OHIP-14 had superior content validity due to its sensitivity towards less severe impacts.

Oral health-related quality of life, OHRQoL, among elderly is an important concern for the health and welfare policy in Norway and Sweden. The aim of the study was to assess reproducibility, longitudinal validity and responsiveness of the OIDP frequency score. Whether the temporal relationship between tooth loss and OIDP varied by country of residence was also investigated.

An important aim of antenatal care is to improve maternal health- and well being of which oral health is an important part. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of oral impacts on daily performances (OIDP) during pregnancy, using a locally adapted OIDP inventory, and to document how periodontal status, tooth-loss and reported periodontal problems are related to oral impacts.

To prevent child maltreatment, the identification of vulnerable children is essential. In Norway, public dental health personnel (PDHP) report suspicion of child maltreatment to child welfare services (CWS) at a relatively high rate. However, their reasons for reporting and the response from CWS have not been investigated. The objectives of this study were to (1) explore the reasons that PDHP send reports of concern, (2) examine how CWS responds to PDHP reports, and (3) assess whether different reasons for concern are associated with a given response from CWS. A national cross-sectional study was conducted by an electronic survey distributed to public dental hygienists and dentists in Norway. Descriptive statistics were calculated in terms of mean (SD) distributions and frequency, expressed as % (n). To account for clustering of responses among respondents, binomial generalized estimating equation analysis was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and confidence intervals (CIs) of CWS responses across number of reports with different reasons for concern. Of a total of 1542 questionnaire recipients, 1200 (77.8%) responded to the survey. From 2012 to 2014, 42.5% of the respondents sent 1214 reports to CWS, with a mean number of 2.7 (SD = 2.0) reports per respondent. The PDHP sent the reports due to suspicion of neglect or physical, sexual and/or psychological abuse. Non-attendance at dental appointments and grave caries were reported most frequently. Among the reports, 24.5% resulted in measures being taken by CWS, 20.7% were dropped, and 29.4% lacked information from CWS on the outcome. Reports due to suspicion of sexual abuse, (OR 1.979, 95% CI (1.047–3.742), P = 0.036), grave caries (OR 1.628, 95% CI (1.148–2.309), P = 0.006), and suspicion of neglect (OR 1.649, 95% CI (1.190–2.285), P = 0.003) had the highest association with the implementation of measures. PDHP report on several forms of child maltreatment and contributes in detection of victimized children. However, the relatively low number of measures being taken by CWS and the number of reports that lack a response to reporters reveal a need for a closer cooperation between the services, as this would benefit both the children at risk and the services.