Effects of information dissemination using video of indigenous language on 11-12 years children's dental health.

BACKGROUND

Videos as a medium of health education are useful tools. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a dental health education video in the Yoruba language (spoken in southwestern Nigeria) targeted at children from the lower socioeconomic class.

METHODS

An interventional study was conducted among 120 children aged 11 and 12 years, randomly selected from three public primary schools in Ibadan, Nigeria. Participants were assigned into three study groups: group 1 watched the video, group 2 received verbal dental health education in the Yoruba language and group 3 were the control. Following this, each participant received a full mouth prophylaxis, and six weeks later, their oral hygiene was assessed using the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index of Greene and Vermillion.

RESULTS

A mean debris score of (1.11), (1.04) and (1.57) was recorded for the video, verbal and control groups respectively (p<0.001). The mean calculus index score was lowest among the verbal group (0.56), followed by the video group (0.75) and highest among the control (1.16) (p<0.001). However, multivariate analysis, controlling for child's age and fathers education, revealed that oral hygiene of the participants in the video group was significantly better by 28.6% compared to the control group while in the verbal education group there was an improvement of 23.4 % in contrast to the control.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated that a culturally appropriate video in an indigenous language can significantly improve oral hygiene among school children from the lower socioeconomic group in Nigeria.