article · PubMed
A study in Lagos State evaluated two educational methods designed to improve oral health among 220 secondary school adolescents over a twelve-month period. Participants were divided into three groups: one received didactic oral health education alone, another received didactic instruction supplemented with weekly messages sent via WhatsApp and Facebook for three months, and a control group received no instruction. Researchers tracked oral hygiene, decayed, missing, and filled teeth indices, and self-reported knowledge and practices. Baseline oral health knowledge was high across all participants, but oral hygiene practices remained poor throughout the evaluation. The findings showed no significant overall difference between the three groups over time, though the social media group achieved a significant improvement in oral hygiene scores by the end of the study. Ultimately, combining social media messaging with didactic education proved as effective as classroom teaching alone.
Adolescence is a vital window for establishing lifelong hygiene habits, yet classroom knowledge does not always translate into daily practice. Demonstrating that digital platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook can reinforce traditional health teaching provides educators and public health authorities with tested evidence on how to engage secondary school students directly through existing mobile channels.
The findings point to potential applications for digital health communication tools, educational technology platforms, and public health campaigns targeting youth via existing social networks. Because the trial tested standard social messaging platforms directly in schools, the intervention approach is applied and ready for adaptation by education boards or health organisations, though the abstract notes no proprietary software or commercialised products.
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OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of two oral health educational (OHE) methods in improving the oral health status of adolescents in Lagos State. METHODS: A cluster-randomized controlled trial involving 220 adolescents in selected Lagos State secondary schools in Nigeria was conducted. Structured oral health education was delivered didactically to two intervention groups (T1 and T2). Additionally, (T2) received regular weekly oral health messages via WhatsApp and Facebook for three months. The third (control) group (T3) received nothing. OHI-S scores and DMFT findings were recorded following WHO standards, and oral health knowledge and practice were assessed using a questionnaire on Day 1, and subsequently at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. The statistical test included a Student's t-test, ANOVA, and chi-square test. The critical significance level was set at p < 0.05, and the confidence interval at 95%. RESULTS: Of 220 participants, 88 were males, and females constituted 132, with a mean age of 16.11±0.6 years. The mean OHI-S score at baseline was 0.76±0.44, 0.80±0.59, and 0.81±0.52 in intervention 1(T1), 2(T2) and control (T3) groups respectively. There was no significant difference between the three groups at various periods (F>0.05), though the group with social media reinforced oral hygiene messages had a significant improvement in oral hygiene at the end of the study. There was a good level of oral health knowledge, but oral health practice was poor in the three groups (T1)74.7%, 51.8%, (T2)80.7%, 66.3%, (T3)72.2%, 51.9%) respectively, with no significant difference between them at the beginning, and end of the study. Similarly, there was no significant difference in the mean DMFT of the three groups at the beginning and end of the study. CONCLUSION: OHE using the didactic and social media-reinforced mode of delivery was just as effective as the didactic method alone in improving the oral health status of adolescent school children in Lagos State.
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