Impact of oral health education on primary school children before and after teachers' training in Tanzania

Abstract

Oral health education is part of the primary school curriculum in Tanzania. However, most of the teachers responsible for it lack training and motivation for the task. Their oral health education sessions are deficient in content and in methods, only addressing oral hygiene by lectures. Thus, modified oral health education was designed and teacher training workshops were carried out in one district by a dental team in liaison with school administrators. After training, the teachers taught a variety of oral health issues and pupils actively studied the concepts and practical skills for dietary choices and toothbrushing. This report describes the impact of oral health education given by teachers before and after they had been trained in the workshops. The impact of the sessions was assessed as changes in the pupils' oral health knowledge, attitudes and practices. Three random samples, each with 200 pupils, including conventional and modified session groups and a reference group not given oral health education at school, were interviewed and examined. The group that received modified oral health education had better knowledge of oral health, reported reduced consumption of sugary foods and increased toothbrushing frequency, and had better 'mswaki' (chewing-stick) making skills and slightly improved oral hygiene; in comparison with the referents. The group with conventional oral health education had somewhat better oral health knowledge but their practices were no better than the referents'. The results emphasize the need for providing training, guidance and feedback to implementers of oral health education programmes.