Effectiveness of a short web-based film targeting parental oral health knowledge in a well-child care setting

Young children rely on their parents with respect to oral health routines. However, parental knowledge on this topic is often insufficient. Well-child care may be an excellent route to reach parents because almost all of them attend. To evaluate the effectiveness of an 8.5 min web-based film about oral health, provided by well-child care, a non-blinded quasi-experimental study was performed. Parents attending well-child care clinics in the Netherlands were assigned to an intervention (n = 88) or control group (n = 41). The control group received care as usual. We measured parental knowledge of oral health with a questionnaire (range of scores 1-12) before and directly after the intervention, and 6 months later, and assessed differences between the intervention and the control group. Parental oral health knowledge improved after watching the film: the intervention group's mean score of 11.1 (SD 1.3) was greater than the mean score of 7.1 (SD 2.0) of the control group (Cohen's d = 2.64). Scores remained higher in the intervention group 6 months after watching the film (mean 9.1, SD 1.3) than before (Cohen's d = 1.25). A web-based educational film delivered in a well-child care setting can be an effective way to address oral health and to improve parental knowledge.