We are
thrilled to kick off our research funded by the
University of Washington Royalty Research Fund (RRF). Tooth decay is a major
public health problem in Alaska Native communities. Our work will examine the association
between sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) intake and dental caries (tooth decay)
in Alaska Native children. One really cool thing about this project is the use
of carbon and nitrogen isotopes found in hair to measure SSB intake. We have a fantastic
team consisting of Co-Investigators from the UW and the University of Alaska
Fairbanks (UAF) Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR). CANHR
investigators have been in the Yukon Kuskokwim (YK) Delta for over a decade conducting NIH-funded
studies in various YK communities.
Our initial grant application was submitted to
the RRF in September 2012. We were not funded the first time. In March 2013, we
resubmitted the grant and were notified in June 2013 that we had received a
$40,000 grant.
Our project is taking place at the Yukon Kuskokwim Health
Corporation (YKHC) dental clinic in Bethel. The YKHC dental staff has been
amazing. We spent the early part of the day figuring out ways to identify potential
participants, organize study forms, manage flow of study participants, document
incentives, etc. The YKHC dental staff has been very accommodating and helpful.
We worked out of two dental operatories (#13 and #14). In one of the
operatories, my UAF collaborators consented parents and collected survey, height,
and weight data as well as hair samples from the children. In the second
operatory, I collected dental caries data.
After the YKHC dental clinic closed for the day, we were
able to continue collecting data at the CANHR clinical research facilities at
the Kuskokwim Campus (KuC), which is located next to the Bethel library.
We
transported some of our examination materials to KuC around 6:00 PM. After we
arrived and got settled into KuC, I realized I had left the mouth mirrors in
the YKHC clinic. So I called a cab and went over to YKHC to pick up the mirrors.
Speaking of cabs…
The cab system in Bethel is really interesting. Unless
you own a car, cabs are one of the only ways to get around town. Word on the
street (unconfirmed) is that there are more cabs per capita in Bethel than
there are in Manhattan. I will try to find published data to support this
claim. Based on personal experiences, I can attest that there are TONS of cabs
in Bethel – TONS. You call the taxi dispatcher and a cab is usually at your
door within minutes. The cab payment system in Bethel is flat rate - $7 one way
from the airport to anywhere in Bethel and $5 one way to travel anywhere within
Bethel. These rates are per person, which means that you end up sharing cabs
with others, including strangers. If you want to stop someplace (e.g., the AC grocery
store), you get charged an extra $2 per stop and $1 for every minute of waiting
beyond three minutes. My cab ride from KuC to YKHC cost $10. I avoided the $2
stop fee, which the nice Macedonian cab driver waived. He and his family (wife,
child, mother, and father) have all lived in Bethel for 3 years. His brother
used to live in Bethel but moved back to Macedonia.
This morning, the temperature in Bethel was in the 30s,
which is much warmer than usual. There are sheets of slippery ice covering most
of the town. There are also reports that parts of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers have started to thaw (usually this happens in April), which has led to major
transportation problems for families that rely on a frozen river to get from
one place to another using snow machines (=snow mobiles).
Our goal is to enroll 50 children. We saw 5 children
today. Since we have a total of 10 enrollment days available, which includes
working on the Saturday before the Super Bowl, we are currently on target. As
clinic flow improves and word gets out into the community that we are in town, I
am hoping to meet our enrollment goals ahead of time.
