Dental health education program among mothers of the children aged 2-6 years old in Davidashen hamaynq (district) of Yerevan

Abstract

Dental caries is a preventable multi-factorial disease associated with considerable morbidity and costs [1,2]. The problem of dental caries is one of the crucial issues all over the world. The disease is common world-wide, more than 98 % of people all over the world is suffering from dental caries [3]. It was estimated that the average schoolchild in the US has at least one cavity in permanent teeth by age 9 and three cavities by age 12 [4]. Generally, tooth decay and gum diseases are among the most widespread conditions that affect human population and are most frequently found in the children [5]. Dental health education is an essential strategy to improve oral health and obviously, the best time to begin care for the teeth is in early childhood. An exposure to basic principles of health yhabits in the early years will allow building a healthy and well-rounded lifestyle in future as an adult [5]. This paper proposes to develop, conduct and evaluate dental health education classes among parents (mothers) of the children aged 2-6 years old in the Davidashen Hamaik (District) of Yerevan. The goals of the dental health education classes are: • Increase dental health related knowledge of the parents (mothers) of the children aged 2-6 years old in the Davidashen Hamaik (District) of Yerevan; • Improve children’s behaviour related dental health; • Reduce the prevalence of dental caries, that is dmft (decayed, missing,filled teeth) index among the children aged 2-6 years old in the Davidashen Hamaik (District) of Yerevan. The duration of this program is 3 years (January 1, 2000 to January 1, 2003), and the program will include five main phases according the design. • Phase 1 Pre-intervention (baseline data collection) Rationale:to conduct "needs assessment" for the parents (mothers) of the children aged 2-6 years old in the Davidashen Hamaik (District) of Yerevan. Additionally, the oral examinations will be carried out according to the methodology of the World Health Organisation and initial DMFT indices of the children aged 2-6 will be measured. • Phase 2 Program Development & Implementation (Intervention phase) Rationale: to design a curriculum for dental health education classes among mothers of the children aged 2-6 years old in the Davidashen Hamaik (District) of Yerevan and to design imlementation plan to launch this program. • Phase 3 Program Evaluation I (post-intervention level I) Dependent variable to be measured: dental health related knowledge of the parents of the children aged 2-6 years old; Design: Quasi-experimental, the pretest-posttest control group design. Dependent variable to be measured: children’s behaviour related dental health. Design: Quasi-experimental, the pretest-posttest control group design. • Phase 4: Program Reinforcement The literature indicates importance and integrity of reinforcement for dental health education [4,25]. • Phase 5: Program Evaluation II (post-intervention level II) Dependent variable to be measured: prevalence of dental caries, i.e. dmft index. Design: Quasi-experimental, the pretest-posttest control group design. Study population Intervention group: parents who live in the Davidashen Hamaik District) of Yerevan, who have child aged 2-6 years old and registered at the Davidashen’s Paediatric Polyclinic # 20. Non-intervention group: parents who live in the Davidashen Hamaik (District) of Yerevan, who have child aged 2-6 years old and registered at the Davidashen’s Paediatric Polyclinic # 20. Estimated sample size: 50 mothers per intervention and non-intervention groups. Total budget: US$34,782