Social accountability is a key value and aspirational goal of many medical institutions. While much has been studied on social accountability in the context of medical education and institutions, less research has examined how social accountability influences research. In light of this absence, the objective of our scoping review is to research the following questions: (1) What characterises socially accountable research (SAR), and how is it expressed and experienced? (2) How do language, positionality, and worldview influence SAR?, and (3) What structures and considerations are necessary to support successful SAR in local and global contexts?

To answer the above research questions, the Arksey and O’Malley, Levac et al, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews and Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines will be followed. The search strategy was adapted and applied to MEDLINE, Embase, ERIC, and CINAHL databases. A total of n=5289 eligible articles were identified. Articles were excluded if they were published before 1995, were in a language other than English, or were duplicates, leaving n=2840 articles for title/abstract screening.

Ethical approval is not required to complete this study. We will take an integrated knowledge translation approach. Throughout the project, results will be disseminated to knowledge users (ie, consultations, following Arksey and O’Malley). Our findings will be presented to the larger academic community, policymakers, and healthcare practitioners through presentations, reports, newsletters, and an online repository.

Open Science Framework 16 July 2024. osf.io/mvhnu.

There are no clearly defined family profiles with an overall view of the predictors of early childhood caries (ECCs). The aim of our study was to identify the profiles of families that are particularly affected by ECCs. We also examined the factors that can be acted on to promote oral health.

In this single-centre cross-sectional study, the researchers examined the mouths of 300 children with caries and recorded the Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth Index (dmft). These observations were supplemented by a questionnaire completed by the families, focusing in particular on their sociodemographic characteristics (e.g. age, parents’ professions and jobs, social assistance and family composition).

This work was conducted at Lille University Hospital between 2019 and 2024.

The participants included 300 caregiver-child dyads with children under the age of 6 years.

Childhood Caries Index (dmft) and family characteristics associated with ECCs.

A multiple correspondence analysis was used, followed by a hierarchical clustering on principal components analysis, to identify the family profiles associated with ECC risk.

Of the patients included in the study, 42% were girls, 58% were boys and their mean age was 4 years (±1.1 years). The mean dfmt index was 8.7 (±4.6); 77% of the participants had lesions on the smooth surfaces of the teeth, and 80% of the participants had a severe stage of caries disease. The analysis revealed three high-risk profiles based on the characteristics of the child’s mother and the family sibling composition. The first profile was larger families where the focal child was not the eldest. The second profile was families with foreign-born mothers and a low socioeconomic level. The third profile was families with mothers facing geographical and financial difficulties in accessing healthcare.

This study enabled us to identify the profiles of families at risk of caries. These at-risk profiles highlight the need to implement specific interventions acting at different levels and focused on oral health education in interprofessional practice during the key period of the first 1000 days of life. These factors could help to bridge the gap between oral health and general health, improve children’s oral health and reduce social health inequalities.

This human study has been ethically approved by the French Committee for the Protection of Individuals (N° 2019-A00827-50).

The protocol is recorded on clinicaltrials.gov, with ID: NCT04195607.

Maternal preconception obesity and adverse gestational metabolic health increase the risk of childhood obesity in offspring, but the preconception period may be an opportune time to intervene, given the motivation of the mother and the epigenetic changes that may be beneficial for the gametes during this period. However, there is a lack of studies evaluating children born to women who have had a preconception intervention. Our group has therefore designed an ancillary study to assess children born to women enrolled in the obesity-fertility randomised controlled trial (RCT), who were 6–12 years of age, with the objective of evaluating the effect of a lifestyle intervention delivered during preconception and pregnancy on adiposity and cardiometabolic parameters in the offspring. This manuscript details the study protocol.

This is an ancillary nested cohort study of the obesity-fertility RCT. Women with obesity and infertility were recruited at an academic fertility clinic and randomised to the control group, which followed usual care, or to the intervention group, which received a lifestyle intervention alone for the first 6 months and then in combination with fertility treatments for up to 18 months or until the end of pregnancy. Those who have given birth to a single child are invited to participate in this follow-up study with their child aged 6–12 years. This study started in November 2023 and is expected to end in May 2025. The primary outcome is age-adjusted and sex-adjusted body mass index z-scores in children. Secondary outcomes are anthropometry, body composition, lifestyle, physical fitness level and blood or saliva markers of cardiometabolic health in both mothers and children. Of the 130 women who participated in the obesity-fertility RCT, 52 mother-child dyads (24 in the control group; 28 in the intervention group) were potentially eligible for this follow-up study. Comparisons between groups will be performed using unpaired tests and adjusted for potential confounders using multivariable regression models. This study will provide important new data on the impact of a preconception lifestyle intervention, maintained throughout pregnancy, on the health trajectory of children and mothers 6–12 years after delivery.

The study has been approved by the institutional research ethics review boards of the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de l’Estrie – Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke. The results will be widely disseminated to the scientific community, relevant health professionals and general public.

ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06402825).