Evaluation of short-term education course on the awareness of health educators in Tabriz primary schools about periodontal health in 2020

Abstract

Introduction: Oral health directly affects the quality of life, so it has received much attention in recent years. Various statistics and reports show that the oral problems are very common in different age groups including children and adolescents. It is believed that raising the knowledge and promoting the attitudes towards changing the behavior of the age group of 6 to 12 years is the only way to improve the oral health of society. Objective: The present study aimed at investigating the effect of short-term training on the knowledge of health educators in the schools of Tabriz about the periodontal health during March 2020 – March 2021. Materials and Methods: The present study was a quasi-experimental study of test-retest type in which 40 health educators of schools in District 1, Tabriz, were selected by census method and included in the study. The Oral Health Knowledge Questionnaire was completed before and after the intervention (short-term training) by the participants and the data were analyzed using SPSS v.20 at a 95% confidence interval. Results: In accordance with the findings, the mean score of participants' knowledge of the periodontal health before the intervention was 3.222 ± 8.15, which increased to 12.6 ± 1.751 after it (P = 0.000). A significant increase about 4.45 points was observed in the score of knowledge of periodontal health and the short-term training effectively increased the level of educators' knowledge. Before the intervention, 7 (17.5%), 14 (35%) and 19 (47.5%) participants had a low, medium and high level of knowledge, respectively. Once the intervention ended, no subject had a low level of knowledge and only 2 (5%) subjects had a medium level of knowledge and another 38 subjects enjoyed a high level of knowledge (P = 0.000). Conclusion: Based on the findings, among more than half of the schools' health educators participating in the study, levels of the knowledge of periodontal health were medium and low. By conducting a short-term training, knowledge of 96% of them raised to high level indicating both the effectiveness and efficiency of the curriculum and the fact that the schools' health educators need training on the periodontal health.