A training model for the community healthcare volunteers’ knowledge on periodontal disease and birth outcome

Abstract

Background: Indonesian community healthcare volunteers and pregnant women have not received sufficient special training; they lack knowledge about periodontal disease risks during pregnancy and childbirth. The purpose of this research was to increase community healthcare volunteers' knowledge about periodontal disease, which is a risk during pregnancy and childbirth.Methods: The 9 step theory based training model included stages from problem identification to evaluation that would be incorporated into dental and oral health education programs at public health centers. A quantitative pre-experiment with one subject group compared pre-test and post-test designs. Dentists provided 9-step training to 53 community healthcare volunteers at a health center, East Jakarta. Fifty pregnant women were then given similar training by the community healthcare volunteers.Results: The result was an increase in knowledge among community healthcare volunteers and pregnant women (α=0.05; p=0.000 with the Wilcoxon test). No significant difference was observed on educational aids between flipchart and puzzle cards in increasing knowledge among community healthcare volunteers (p=0.969 with an independent t-test) and pregnant women (p=0.359 with the Mann-Whitney test).Conclusions: The 9-step theory–based training model was found to be effective in increasing knowledge among community healthcare volunteers. Flipchart and puzzle cards were equally effective in increasing knowledge among community healthcare volunteers and pregnant women.