Effectiveness of Dental Health Education with Fun-D Application Use on Dental Health Care Promotion among Village Health Volunteers, Koh Lanta, Krabi Province

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research was aimed to study the effectiveness of dental health education program together with the Dental Health Promotion (Fun-D) Application regarding the dental care knowledge and practice among Village Health Volunteers (VHVs), Koh Lanta District, Krabi Province. Using Cohen's formula, 58 participants were recruited to the study volunteers which 29 were experimental group, and 29 were control groups. Both groups received the same dental health knowledge. The dental health knowledge was also added in Fun-D Application for the experimental group, while the control group received traditional hard copy. Data were collected in December 2019 using a knowledge questionnaire, behaviour questionnaire and the attitude toward Fun-D application. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Paired t-test, Wilcoxon signed rank test and Mann-Whitney U test.   

The results revealed that within experimental group, the mean scores of dental knowledge and practice after the experiment (M=13.72; SD= 1.06 and M=3.12, SD=0.19), were significantly higher than those of before (M=9.31, SD=2.14; and M=3.26, SD=0.20) at the 0.05 level (p<0.001). Comparing between the experimental and the control group, even though there was no significant difference of the mean score of dental knowledge between them showed no difference; the mean score of dental health practice between them showed statistically significant at the level of 0.05 (p=0.002). The overall scores of the attitude toward the Fun-D application were very high (M=4.76, SD=2.56). 

The findings suggest that dental health education should be provided together with the dental application for a better understanding and practice among village health volunteers.