Project Grant R56DE032675

The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) awarded a $572,261 Project Grant under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121) to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to examine the impacts of structural racism and discrimination on oral health treatment disparities and outcomes for Hispanic children.

The research project, titled "Examining Impacts of Structural Racism and Discrimination on Hispanic Treatment Differences and Oral Health Disparities", aims to evaluate differences in oral health treatments provided to Hispanic children compared to non-Hispanic white children as a measure of structural racism and discrimination, and how this impacts subsequent caries incidence and severity. The project will use a mixed-methods approach including secondary data analysis and community-based focus groups. Key activities include mining data from large oral health datasets, assessing zip code-level factors like the child opportunity index, and gaining insights from Hispanic families on how multi-level structural barriers affect access to dental care and oral health outcomes. This research is intended to provide a deeper understanding of how structural racism and discrimination impact Hispanic oral health and identify potential protective factors to inform interventions addressing oral care inequities.

UCLA has subcontracted with the University of Colorado Denver to leverage the expertise of Dr. Tamanna Tiwari, an experienced oral health researcher, in areas like data mining, analysis, and research on minority and immigrant health. The $62,352 sub-award will support Dr. Tiwari's contributions to the project.