Mobile Phone Messaging To Improve Oral Hygiene Among Primary School Children in Pakistan

February 10, 2021 updated by: Dr. Ashfaq Ahmed Khawaja Khail, Health Services Academy, Islamabad, Pakistan

Mobile Phone Messaging to Parents: To Improve Oral Hygiene Among Primary School Children In Quetta, Pakistan

Oral health is an important component of general health and oral cavity acts as a mirror to the health of individuals and communities. Inadequate focus on primary prevention of oral diseases, poses a sizeable challenge for numerous countries, especially low and middle income countries.

Mobile phone technology is relatively new and its successes in chronic disease is well documented but there is little evidence available in its use for improving oral health and dietary habits of children.

This will be a Pilot Randomized Control Trial (RCT) . It will be conducted in public and private sector schools of Quetta city, Pakistan. Study will comprise of intervention and a control arm. Duration of intervention is 6 months.

In the intervention group, study participants will be the parents. School teachers will send oral health education and reminder messages on frequent intervals to educate children's parents on oral hygiene and reinforce their behaviors to improve their child oral health.

The primary school children in the control group will not receive any intervention

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Oral health is a vital part of general health and oral cavity is considered as a mirror to the health of individuals and communities. Poor oral health has a great impact on general health and several oral conditions are found to be associated with heart and lung diseases, diabetes, low-birth-weight and premature births. Oral conditions also affect the quality of life through affecting speech, eating, education, facial appearance, confidence and social interaction.

Schools settings are important to reach children. School going age is considered as a receptive and influential phase in an individual's life during which lifelong health related behaviors, attitudes and beliefs are developed. Parents have great role in improving their children's oral health. They can influence their children oral health and behaviors and can provide a supportive environment to their children at home in terms of oral hygiene and diet and prevention of risk factors for oral diseases.

Mobile phone text messaging is a powerful tool for changing behaviors as these are common, available, low-cost, and quick.(30) Text messaging can be utilized in reducing the global burden of diseases by promoting healthy behaviors and supporting disease prevention

The main objective of this study is to assess the use of mobile phone (health) messages to Parents of public and private sector primary school children to improve their oral hygiene status

This study will be a Pilot Randomized Control Trial (RCT), comprising of two arms Intervention and Control arm.

In the intervention groups study participants will be the school teachers, parents and primary school children. School teachers will be provided messages (designed by Dental Public Health Professionals or adopted from other sources) through the researcher himself. The teachers will then form groups to send oral health education and reminder messages on frequent intervals to educate children's parents on oral hygiene and reinforce their behaviors to improve their child oral health. Parents will receive mobile phone messages about oral hygiene and healthy dieting of their children by the teachers. The message format will be text and images, depending upon the education/ literacy level of the parents. Parents will be reminded and information reinforced, at frequent intervals for a period of six months. School Children will be evaluated on their oral hygiene through gingival bleeding and plaque scores at the start of intervention, after three months and at the end of intervention i.e six months.

The primary school children in the control group will not receive any intervention via their parents or teachers (in-active controls) but will be observed on selected outcome measures for baseline data, then at 3 months and at six month interval to compare for differences (if any) with intervention group.

The total duration of this study is two years (2017 to 2018) including the intervention which will be of six months duration.

After six months of start of intervention; both the intervention group and the control group will be assessed and evaluated on the primary outcome i.e. Oral hygiene measured through "Oral Hygiene Index" which is a standardized index for assessing oral hygiene and recommended by World health Organization.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

362

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Pakistan
    • Balochistan
      • Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan, 87300
        • Ashfaq Ahmed Khawajakhail
      • Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan, 87300
        • Dental Section, Sandman Provincial Hospital Quetta

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

5 years to 12 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • School children enrolled in primary schools (public and private) in Quetta city.
  • Primary School children who are permanent residents of Quetta

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Primary School children whose parents/caregivers do not own a mobile phone
  • Primary School children having orthodontic or any other mouth appliance for example Braces etc.
  • Primary School children who have been diagnosed for a systemic illness e.g. Blood disorders or, Diabetes
  • Primary School children who are absent during the time of data collection

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention

The parents will receive "Mobile phone messages" about oral hygiene and healthy dieting of their children through teachers.

The message format will be text and images, depending upon the education/ literacy level of the parents. Parents will be reminded and information reinforced, at frequent intervals for a period of six months.

Oral hygiene of School children will be assessed before intervention, after 6 months interval
Behavioral: Mobile Phone Messaging
Parents of primary school children will receive "Mobile Phone Messages" regarding their children's oral hygiene maintenance and their positive dietary habits.
No Intervention: Control
The primary school children in the control group will not receive any intervention via their parents or teachers (in-active controls) but will be observed on selected outcome measures for baseline data, then at six month interval to compare for differences (if any) with intervention group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in the Oral Hygiene Index Scores
Time Frame: 6 months

Oral hygiene will be measured through "Simplified Oral Hygiene Index" (OHI-S). Each participant will undergo a dental examination in the school by a trained group of examiners (Qualified Dentists). The WHO recommended protocols for Dental examinations will be followed in assessing outcome measure.

Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S) was developed by Greene and Vermillion in 1964. The OHI-S has two components, the Debris Index (DI) and the Calculus Index (CI). Each of these indexes is based on numerical determinations representing the amount of debris or calculus found on the pre-selected tooth surfaces. For each individual, the debris scores are totaled and divided by the number of surfaces scored. The average individual or group debris and calculus scores are combined to obtain the "Simplified Oral Hygiene Index".

The group baseline scores for both the arms will be compared with the post-intervention scores to observe the change (if any) to conclude the study results
6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Health Services Academy, Islamabad, Pakistan

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Ashfaq A Khawajakhail, MPH, Health services Academy, Islamabad

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

September 1, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 30, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

October 30, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 11, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 3, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

January 4, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 11, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 10, 2021

Last Verified

February 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2212-HSA/Ph.D-2015

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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