A Model-based Health Education Program to Improve Oral Health in School Going Children

This was a randomized controlled trial to assess how an education program based on health belief model (HBM) may affect oral health status in the elementary school going children. For this, a convenient sample including 112 school going children aged between 6-12 years old were recruited and randomized into intervention or control groups. Education program consisted five weekly session each lasted for 1 hour approximately. Based on the main constructs of the HBM, each session was organized and a combination of educational methods were used in the intervention group while the control group only received the routine program provided by the dental clinic. Measures such as papillary bleeding index; decayed, missing, filled teeth (DMFT) and a scale based on the HBM were used for data collection. Three months after the intervention the measures were administered again and comparisons between baseline and follow-up were done.