Effectiveness of Oral Health Education among Community Health Workers Based on Communication-Behavior Change Model

The purpose of this study wasassess the effectiveness of health education based on Communicationbehavior change model (McGuire, 1984) in improving the knowledge, attitude and practices of the ASHA and Anganwadi workers regarding oral health.

A community randomized trial was conducted on ASHA and Anganwadi workers of Kaiwara and Chinnasandra, Primary health Centre based on Communication-behavior change model. They were provided with a self-administered questionnaire to assess knowledge, attitude and practices regarding oral health. This was followed by a 30 minute oral health education based on the Persuasive health message framework (Witte, 1995) using audio-visual aids. The ASHA and Anganwadi workers of Kaiwara PHC were randomly chosen to provide oral health information leaflet for reinforcement. After an interval of one month they were again given the questionnaires and the improvement in the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding oral health was assessed.

95 ASHA and Anganwadi workers participated in the study. The mean knowledge score before the intervention was 26.54 whereas after the intervention it increased to 29.77 and was statistically significant according to paired t-test.

Community programs based on sound scientific models can be effective in bringing about behavior change in the community. The community health workers can be effectively used to reach the population who has limited access to dental services.