Supply of dental health information by 182 Dutch organizations working in the field of dentistry.

Abstract

Little is known about the exchange of Dental Health Information (DHI), as part of the dental health education process, between the Dutch public, organizations active in or related to dentistry and Dutch dental professionals. Based on the ideas of HAVELOCK a communication model was developed. The main question was: how and through which organizations is information supplied, on what subjects related to dental health? A group was formed, consisting of 182 organizations and institutions and 85% decided to collaborate with the study. Telephone interviews were used for the sampling of the data. Of the 154 organizations and institutions only 56% reported to be active in the field of DHI. Preventive information appears to be the main subject. Not the public, but dental professionals and other provider groups are seen as the main target groups. DHI activities appear to consist mainly of providing written information material with a preventive content. These activities are hardly evaluated. Further on: there seems to be no central coordination for DHI activities in the Netherlands. It is concluded that in the field of DHI activities the resource system (organizations and institutions who generate information) and the users system (the public and dental patients) are not in accordance with each other.