Parental Consent and Access to Oral Health Care for Adolescents.

Policy Polit Nurs Pract

1 Mennonite College of Nursing Normal, Illinois State University, IL, USA.

Published: November 2017

While most states allow minors 12 years and older to consent to services for contraception, prenatal care, or sexually transmitted infections, the same adolescents are required to have parental consent for even preventive oral health care. Many adolescents are denied access to preventive oral health care because of the challenge of securing parental consent for care when parents are unwilling, unable, or unavailable to consent. Our purpose is to examine the barriers to preventive oral health care for U.S. adolescents related to parental consent laws, explore the issues surrounding these laws, and recommend policy changes. We explain the current range and status of consent laws across the country and arguments for parental consent law as it now stands. We discuss the difficulty of applying general medical consent law to preventive oral health care, neuroscience research on cognitive capacity among adolescents, and the distinction between parental consent and adolescent assent. We recommend replacing required "opt-in" consent with simpler "opt-out" consent; developing a tool for assessing adolescent decision-making capacity; advocating for consent laws that apply specifically to preventive oral health care; and empowering school nurses to lead local, state, and nationwide policy and legislation efforts.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1527154418763115DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

parental consent
24
oral health
24
health care
24
preventive oral
20
care adolescents
12
consent
12
consent laws
12
care
8
consent law
8
parental
6

Similar Publications

PMN-MDSCs are responsible for immune suppression in anti-PD-1 treated TAP1 defective melanoma.

Clin Transl Oncol

January 2025

Department of General Surgery, Guangzhou Digestive Disease Center, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510013, Guangdong, China.

Introduction: The transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) is a key component of the classical HLA I antigen presentation pathway. Our previous studies have demonstrated that the downregulation of TAP1 contributes to tumor progression and is associated with an increased presence of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in the tumor microenvironment. However, it remains unclear whether the elevation of MDSCs leads to immune cell exhaustion in tumors lacking TAP1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study aimed to develop the 'Fear of Feeding My Child- A Parental Report (FF-PR)', which measures the parental fear of feeding their children, and to determine its reliability and validity. The study consists of the developmental phase and reported the content validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct, criterion, and discriminant validity. The study included two groups; 'Group I (N = 90)' who had a neurological disorder and their parents, and 'Group II (N = 60)' who were typically developing children without any feeding and swallowing problems and their parents.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The incidence of allergic diseases has been increasing in Japan. In particular, a serious decline in the age of onset of allergic rhinitis has been observed. Passive smoking from parental smoking has a significant impact on children's health; however, it is difficult to restrict smoking in the home.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Childhood cancer and parental mental health: role of disease severity, socioeconomic status, and social dynamics.

BMC Psychiatry

January 2025

Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Bielefeld University, P.O. Box 100131, Universitätsstraße 25, Bielefeld, 33501, Germany.

Background: The impact of childhood cancer extends beyond the affected child, significantly influencing the mental health of their families. Since research in psycho-oncology has been carried out almost exclusively in high-income countries, little is known about the impact of childhood cancer on the family level in low- and middle income countries (LMICs). This is a notable gap in the evidence-base, as many LMICs are collectivist cultures, where social and family networks are crucial elements of health care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Emerging evidence suggests that there are morphological and physiological changes to the vastus lateralis after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. However, it is unclear whether these alterations are limited to just the vastus lateralis or are more representative of widespread changes across the thigh musculature and/or if these changes precede reconstruction. The purpose of this study was to determine T1ρ relaxation time, a measure of extracellular matrix organization in muscle, and physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) for muscles of the quadriceps and hamstrings of the ACL-deficient and contralateral limbs soon after ACL injury.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!