Medisur (Jul 2023)
Oral health educational intervention in schoolchildren from the Venezuela municipality, Ciego de Ávila, 2018
Abstract
Foundation: oral health is a component of people's general health, developing promotion and prevention actions from an early age to guarantee healthy lifestyles.Objective: to determine the effectiveness of an educational intervention strategy to improve the oral health knowledge level in fifth grade students.Methods: pre-experimental, intervention study, of the before and after type, in 43 schoolchildren from the Venezuela municipality, Ciego de Ávila, Cuba, from September 2018 to January 2019. Learning needs were identified through a survey. The educational intervention strategy was prepared and executed with theoretical-practical activities and affective-participatory techniques according to the participants’ age. The percent was used as the summary unit; and for statistical analysis, the McNemar test.Results: before the intervention there was insufficient knowledge about topics such as dental caries, oral hygiene and cariogenic diet; after applying the strategy, knowledge about oral health in general was modified favorably (65.1%). The information related to the time to change the toothbrush, and other auxiliary means to perform oral hygiene, were the best assimilated topics (93.0 % and 90.7 % each) by the infants.Conclusions: the educational intervention was effective; it was evidenced by raising the oral health knowledge level in the studied population, as a result of the educational actions carried out.
