A Social Media Intervention on Promoting Oral Heath Among Iranian Adolescents

A Randomized Trial of a Social Media Intervention on Promoting Oral Heath Among Iranian Adolescents

Online social networking sites, such as Telegram, possess a number of useful features that could enhance oral health promotion interventions, including the ability of users to share personal information, which is aggregated and displayed to other users .This study is a longitudinal controlled trial that is designed to investigate the effectiveness of a multi-component intervention on improving oral health in adolescents and their mothers. Participants will be allocated in three groups with a) an intervention group in which mothers and children receive the intervention and questionnaires via Telegram, b) only the children receive the intervention via Telegram and mothers and children receive the questionnaires, and c) mothers and children are in active control group and only receive the questionnaires. The intervention package contains behavior change techniques targeting outcome expectancy, self-efficacy, action planning, coping planning, and self-monitoring. The active control group receives an information sheet regarding recommendations on Oral health behaviors. There will be 3 assessment points in time, baseline, 1 month and 6 months after the interventions.

The primary outcome of this study is to estimate the dyadic mechanisms between mothers and their children regarding improving oral health. Secondary outcome is to investigate whether oral health behavior did improve in the intervention groups in general and also to find the psychological mechanism behind the changes during the time of the study.

Inclusion Criteria:

• aged 12 to 16
• possess a smartphone
• able or willing to give informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• They are not engaged in other oral-health education or research program.
• They have no physical and/or mental disabilities that will impede their ability to perform their own oral hygiene activities.