Hassan Bin Usman, Usman Siddique, Iffat Atif, Huma Chishti.
Effect Of Health Education On Oral Hygiene Knowledge And Practices In Rural Areas Of District Bhakkhar (Punjab - Pakistan).
Isra Med J Jan ;8(4):237-41.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of health education in improving the knowledge and practice of oral hygiene in a rural community of district Bhakkhar. STUDY DESIGN: Non Randomized Design (before and after design). th st PLACE AND DURATION: At 12 Union Councils of District Bhakkar, Punjab. Duration is 12 months 15 April 2014 to 1 April 2015. METHODOLOGY: Total of 1739 individuals were interviewed before the oral health/hygiene education sessions and were reinterviewed after 3 months using the same close ended questionnaire to assess the effect of oral health counseling. A total of 51 awareness sessions on oral hygiene were conducted in small groups. The data was collected from the subjects mainly focusing on oral hygiene knowledge and practices. RESULTS: The knowledge about the oral health/hygiene, diseases related to it, methods of brushing the teeth etc. improved among the community members after the intervention, which was found to be statistically significant. Before the awareness session only 16% had knowledge about the caries which increased to 31% in post-test. Similarly, more people started to adopt healthy oral hygiene practices on regular basis (pre 49% and post 70%). CONCLUSION: The findings of the study showed that health education sessions had a profound effect on raising knowledge about different aspects of oral health and improving practices of the respondents.

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