Sources of oral health information and teaching materials for primary schoolteachers in Rungwe District, Tanzania.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE:
To determine the various major sources of Oral Health Education (OHE) for primary school teachers in Rungwe District, Mbeya Region, Tanzania.

DESIGN:
Cross-sectional study using a self-administered close-ended questionnaire.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING:
232 rural and urban in-service primary school teachers and 195 final-year-teacher trainees at college.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
Socio-demographic factors, common teachers' OHE sources, common sources of OHE teaching aides, and teachers' previous OHE training opportunity.

RESULTS:
Textbooks and a dental clinic were found to be the most common sources of OHE for a large proportion of in-service and trainee teachers, while neighbours and a teachers' college were reported by a smaller proportion. The District Dental Officer was the only significant source of oral health education teaching materials in this study.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION:
While primary schoolteachers' sources for oral health education information was mainly textbooks and from a dental clinic, the source of teaching materials was largely a District Dental Officer. Details on the particular sources were not sought and further studies are therefore required. However, the findings highlight a need for standardised and equally distributed oral health material sources both for valid information and for teaching in schools.

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Author information

Author/s: Mwangosi, Ibrahim E A T (IE); Mwakatobe, Kisa M (KM); Astrom, Anne N K (AN);

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: International dental journal (Int Dent J), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Dec; vol 52 (issue 6) : pp 469-74

Dates: Created 2003/01/29; Completed 2003/04/28; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 12553403, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Cross-Sectional Studies
Faculty - statistics & numerical data
Health Education, Dental
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans

Information Dissemination - methods
Questionnaires
Tanzania
Teaching Materials
Textbooks as Topic

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