EFFECTIVENESS OF MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AND GAMES ON ORAL HYGIENE OF CHILDREN AND ORAL HEALTH KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR OF MOTHERS:A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of motivational interviewing (MI) as well as games in changing oral health behaviors among preschool children in Edko administration, Beheira governorate, Egypt. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The participating children, in this randomized controlled clinical trial, in 2018, were recruited from the 12 governmental preschools available within Edko administration of Beheira governorate, Egypt. A cluster random sampling strategy was used so that the contributors, mother/child dyads (pairs), in each nursery, were subsequently assigned to experimental group I (MI), experimental group II (MI+ gaming) or the control group (conventional dental health education (CE). The two outcomes, oral hygiene index simplified (OHI-S) for children and knowledge, attitude and practice of children's mothers were measured at base line and after six months follow-up. Paired t-test was used. RESULTS: After six months follow-up, compared with the control group (1.41 ± 0.77), preschool children in experimental group I and II had significantly lower mean ± SD of OHI-S (0.69± 0.61 and 0.70±0.72), P <0.001 and significantly higher mothers' knowledge (26.98±2.90 and 25.75±2.52), attitude (19.52±2.14 and 20.17±4.16) and practice scores (9.75 ±2.05 and 9.08 ±2.20), where P< 0.05. CONCLUSIONS: Using MI as an oral health education tool was significantly more effective in promoting preschool children's oral hygiene and improving mothers' knowledge, attitude and oral health related practices than CE alone. The protocol of the study was registered and posted on the ClinicalTrials.gov public website. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04258748. KEYWORDS: Oral health education, motivational interviewing, game based education, oral health behaviors, preschool children. RUNNING TITLE: effectiveness of motivational interviewing and game based education.