Study design and sample
Data for this study are from the Detroit Dental
Health Project (DDHP), one of five Centers funded
by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial
Research (NIDCR grant U-54 DE 14261) to conduct
research on reducing oral health disparities (27).
The DDHP focuses on understanding the social,
familial, biological, and neighborhood context of
oral health in a large, population-based sample of
low-income African-American families in Detroit,
Michigan. The sample was selected using a multistage
area probability sample design. The DDHP
research team selected the 39 Census tracts with the
lowest median household income in the city of
Detroit based on 2000 Census data. Families were
eligible if they had at least one child