Effectiveness of Smart Phone Application in Improving Oral Health Behaviours of Adolescents

Effectiveness of Smart-phone App in Improving Oral-Health Knowledge & Practices Among School Going Adolescents: A Randomized Control Trial

This study would be a first step towards mobile-health associated Sustainable Development Goals by World Health Organization, as there are no mobile-health driven oral health activities in Karachi, Pakistan. Concurrently, it will help in improving knowledge and practices of adolescents towards general dental hygiene as this age is crucial for the prognosis of newly erupted permanent teeth. This would help in preventing chronic problems of adulthood. This will also help in reducing the number of days missed from school, increasing self-confidence of individuals as bad breath has a negative impact on one's self-esteem and confidence, giving a positive sense of aesthetics and will also keep in check over-all body health.Persistent unmaintained dental hygiene also overburdens families due to its high-maintenance outcomes like caries and early tooth loss. Dental treatment is considered as fourth most expensive treatment in developing countries . According to recent studies, households of low and middle income countries are at a higher risk of falling below the poverty line due to expenditure on dental problems. Such a simple intervention making use of modern-day technology would enable adolescents to keep their oral health in check and would prevent them from facing consequences of poor oral health.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Oral Hygiene
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: m-Health application

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 152
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 14 years to 19 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adolescent of age between 14-19 years
• Having access to an android device at home; either personal or parents'
• Would be able to use the app twice every day- Having access to Wi-Fi at home- for downloading the app.
• Willing to give consent
• participate in the study till the follow-up period.

Exclusion Criteria:

• - Having mixed dentition
• Undergoing orthodontic treatment
• Should have no serious existing gingival or dental problems* that could hinder calculation of plaque or gingival scores
• Should have no serious existing gingival or dental problems* that could hinder routine brushing.
• Taking medications that have effect on gingival/dental health
• Having intrinsic or extrinsic enamel defects/ tooth malformations
• Having more than 1/3rd of the tooth stained due to areca nut chewing, smokeless tobacco (gutkha) chewing or cigarette smoking.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: m-health application; a mobile app designed to send reminders for brushing and give information on maintaining oral health	Behavioral: m-Health application; Dental Buddy is a mobile application that has been designed to improve oral hygiene maintenance behaviours in teenagers; Other Names: Dental Buddy
Other: Leaflet; This is the control arm. An educational leaflet for maintaining oral hygiene will be given to participants in this arm	Behavioral: m-Health application; Dental Buddy is a mobile application that has been designed to improve oral hygiene maintenance behaviours in teenagers; Other Names: Dental Buddy

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Knowledge scores	Knowledge scores will be assessed by a self-administered questionnaire with maximum score of 30 and minimum of 0. Higher scores mean better knowledge.	6 weeks
Practice scores	reduction in plaque index scores. score range 0-6. score 0 being the best and score 6 being the worst. Gingival index scores ranging from 0-6, score ) lesser (0) being the best and 6 being the worst.	6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Aga Khan University
• Investigators: Study Director: Shafquat Rozi, Dr, Aga Khan University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Anticipated): February 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): March 1, 2021
• Study Completion (Anticipated): April 30, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 11, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 11, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): March 13, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 18, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 17, 2020
• Last Verified: September 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 3539

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No