Background: The oral cavity is the gateway to the body. Oral health education always begins with awareness of oral health Aim: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of school-based health education on knowledge and practice regarding oral hygiene among the primary school children in rural areas of Tumkur, Karnataka, India and to find out various factors associated with it. Materials & methods: An Evaluative research approach with Pre-experimental one group pretest and posttest design and Non-probability purposive sampling technique were used to select 100 primary school children from rural community Karnataka, India. A self-structured knowledge questionnaire and practice checklist was used for assessing the knowledge and practice among the subjects. SPSS version 25 was used for data analysis. Results: There was a significant difference between the pre and post-intervention level of knowledge (t = 41.7, p= 0.0001) and practice (t = 33.9, p= 0.0001) regarding oral hygiene among the primary school children. There was an association between primary school children’s knowledge score with their demographic variables like age (x2 = 10.3, p=0.03) and mothers educational status (x2 = 11, p=0.01).There was an association between primary school children’s practice score with their demographic variables like age (x2 = 10.1, p=0.04), socioeconomic status (x2 = 8.9, p=0.01) and mothers educational status (x2 = 16.7, p=0.001). Conclusion: School-based health education was effective to enhance the knowledge and practice of oral hygiene among the primary school in rural communities.
Oral Hygiene, Primary School Children, School-Based Health Education, Knowledge and Practice, Rural Community
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