Background: To assess the effectiveness of oral health education on oral health knowledge, attitude, practices and oral hygiene status among 12-15-year-old school children of fishermen of Kutch district, Gujarat, India.
Materials and methods: A before-and-after experimental study was conducted among all (n = 205) the 12-15-year-old children from two schools of Bhadreshwar village of Mundra taluka of Kutch district, Gujarat, India from January 2013 to December 2013. At baseline, children were assessed for oral health knowledge, attitude and practices using a self-administered structured questionnaire and oral hygiene was assessed using Oral Hygiene Index-Simplified (OHI-S). Oral health education was provided after baseline assessment, at 3 months and at 6 months. Follow up study was done after 1 year from baseline. Statistical tests applied were Independent t test, paired t test and McNemar test. Level of significance and confidence level were set at 5% and 95%, respectively.
Results: Mean OHI-S scores reduced significantly at 1 year follow up interval. All the questions showed statistically significant improvement in knowledge, attitude and practices except the frequency of change of tooth brush which showed no improvement.
Conclusions: The results of the study reflects the accomplishment of upgrading oral health knowledge, attitude, practices and oral hygiene status of fishermen children through school oral health education programme. Organizing oral health education in high school children of fishermen community could lead to improvement in students' oral hygiene to ultimately enhance their oral health.