Case-control of oral health knowledge and hygiene behavior due to oral health education programs for the community of township Khayelitsha, South-Africa.

Kamphuis, G.J. (2013) Case-control of oral health knowledge and hygiene behavior due to oral health education programs for the community of township Khayelitsha, South-Africa. thesis, Dentistry.

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to examine if participation in an oral health education program changes the oral health behavior of female adults in a township in South Africa. MATERIAL AND METHODS The setting of this case-study of oral health and hygiene behavior, using questionnaires, is the township Khayelitsha in the Western Cape province, South Africa. The non-profit organization, Medical Knowledge Institute, has a Health Information Centre from which it provides free community health education programs. The participants are women living in Khayelitsha between the age of 16 and 50 who participated in an oral health education course (research group) and who did not attend an oral health education course (control group). To evaluate the differences between both groups data analysis was used. All participants of the oral health course of May 2012 were asked to participate in this study. They received a self-administered questionnaire which they filled-out. As a control group the same number of women in the same age categories from the same township also filled-out the questionnaires. For this study non-validated questionnaires are used in the English language. Topics that are covered are base-line characteristics: age, gender, income, education and oral health problems in the past. Important topics are oral health behavior and oral health knowledge. RESULTS 153 women participated in the study, 77 women in the MKI group and 76 women in the control group. Women who had visited the MKI Oral Health workshop had significantly more knowledge than the control group about the adverse influence of sugars (88,3% (68) vs. 15,8% (12)), smoking (93,5% (72) vs. 53,9% (41)) and cool drinks (88,3% (68) vs. 21,1% (16)) on oral health. Although, they all used tea, coffee and cool drinks, the use of lumps of sugar and the number of cool drinks was significantly lower in the MKI Group (2,75) than in the Control Group (3,25). The MKI Group showed more knowledge on oral health topics (93,5% (72)) and only 6,5 % (5) of the women did not need additional information. This is in contrast with the Control Group of which 85,5% (65) of the women would like to get more information on oral health. CONCLUSION: Tooth decay is still a common disease affecting women in Khayelitsha, South Africa. Oral health education enables women to develop as a person, capable of coping with oral diseases. Promoting oral health education messages can help women to prevent oral diseases effectively. In addition, the women that become aware of their oral health, can transmit their acquired knowledge to other people in their community. From this study no final conclusions can be made, due to the used questionnaire and method. For a good implementation of programs on oral health prevention in the context of Khayelitsha, a collaboration with other health care providers, dentists, educators and other health officers, can help to promote oral health education messages. An integrated approach will contribute to effective control of oral disease.

Item Type:	Thesis (Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Blanksma, dr. N.G and University of Groningen, Faculty of Medical Sciences and Boer, Dr. drs. T.A. De
Faculty:	Medical Sciences
Date Deposited:	25 Jun 2020 10:42
Last Modified:	25 Jun 2020 10:42
URI:	https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/339

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