Implementation of an Oral Health Toolkit for Elementary School Physical Education Teachers Serving Hawai'i Public Schools

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2022

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Children in Hawai’i demonstrate the highest rates of oral caries in the nation due to multitude of factors, such as a lack of appropriate funding or education, absence of fluoridation in water systems, no local dental schools, and racial/ethnic/socioeconomic disparities. This quality improvement project aimed to increase confidence and knowledge levels in an educator in delivering oral health education to students and to also increase oral health exposure to students within an elementary public-school through the utilization of modules based on the American Dental Association. A training session was held with the participant to review the toolkit materials and method of teaching delivery. Levels of confidence, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs surrounding the sustainability and effectiveness of the oral health toolkit were measured in the participant with pre-and-post surveys for comparative data. Oral health knowledge and learning retention performance for the students were also measured using responses from student module worksheets. Results indicated a 20% improvement effect in confidence levels in delivering oral health education to students in the participant, and an average of 80% performance in knowledge and learning retention for the students who participated in the learning modules. Although speculative, results from this small quality improvement project demonstrated that the oral health toolkit was effective at increasing confidence levels in teaching oral health education. Student responses demonstrate that there is a significant need to promote oral health among schoolchildren. Expansion of the toolkit to other schools are necessary in order to generalize the findings beyond this project sample while also allowing opportunities to assist educators in reducing oral health disparities in school-age children.

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Nursing, Dentistry, Health Promotion, Oral Caries Education, Oral Health

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51 pages

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