Effectiveness of an oral health education programme for older adults using a workbook

This study investigated the effects of an oral health education programme utilising a workbook for people aged 65 years or older.

A pre-post quasi-experimental design was used to verify the effectiveness of an oral health education programme using a workbook. Oral health education was provided once a week for 5 weeks from May to June 2019. Intervention group I only received lectures on oral health education, while intervention group II reviewed the content using the workbook immediately after the lecture. Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to compare differences among the three groups; a paired t test was also carried out to identify the changes before and after the programme.

Intervention group I showed a significant increase of 3.52 on oral health knowledge and 3.47 on oral health recognition, while exhibiting a significant decrease of 0.21 on the O'Leary index and 0.69 on the tongue coating index. Intervention group II depicted a significant increase of 4.48 on oral health knowledge and 3.97 on oral health recognition and a significant decrease of 0.32 on the O'Leary index and 2.10 on the tongue coating index.

The oral health education programme using the workbook increased knowledge and recognition of oral health and lowered the O'Leary and tongue coating indexes. Hence, the use of a workbook may facilitate the effectiveness of oral health education for older people.