A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Planned Health Teaching Programme on Oral Health Among School Children in the Age Group 6–12 Years in a Selected Rural School at Tarn Taran District

Abstract

Oral health is an integral part of general health. Oral health has also been found to deeply influence the standard of life. It is necessary to keep up the oral hygiene to stop several problems like tooth decay, coated tongue, bad odor, tooth ache, dental caries and periodontal diseases, etc. Tooth decay and periodontal diseases are highly frequent diseases in many populations. They are extremely irreversible once they occur. Although primary techniques exist for these issues, however, they do not give total protection. Parent’s level of knowledge, negligence, and lack of resources are the major contributors to the oral health problems. As children are totally unaware of these problems, therefore it is the responsibility of the parents to take care of their children. A study to assess the effectiveness of planned teaching programme on oral health among school children in the age group 6–12 years in a selected rural school at, Tarn Taran, District. Aim of study was to assess the impact of teaching on knowledge regarding oral hygiene. A pre-experimental one group pre-and post-test research design was used. The sample size was 60 selected from Government Elementary school, Tarn Taran. The tool used for the data collection was self-structured knowledge questionnaire. The simple random sampling technique was used to select the subjects. It can be seen from the result that the overall pre-test mean knowledge score 14.2 with SD 4.99 as compared to overall post-test mean knowledge score 22.9 with SD 3.96. The data subjected for statistical paired t-test showed a highly significant difference (p < 0.05) existing between pre- and post-test over all mean knowledge score (t = 12.20*). Keywords: knowledge, oral hygiene, planned teaching programme, school children