Effects of Peer-based Education on Adolescent Oral Health Literacy

Effects of a Peer-based Educational Project on Adolescents' Oral Health Literacy

This project aims to identify whether an oral health peer education strategy can influence the level of functional literacy and oral health attitudes of adolescents aged 15 to 19 years. An experimental study will be carried out, a non-randomized controlled community trial, with two groups of educational strategy in oral health: peer education (experimental group) and conventional education (control group). For data collection, three questionnaires will be applied: for socioeconomic, demographic and dental data; assessment of oral health literacy (BOHL-AQ); and assessment of oral health attitudes; the last two being applied before and after the intervention.

This project aims to identify whether an oral health peer education strategy can influence the level of functional literacy and oral health attitudes of adolescents aged 15 to 19 years. An experimental study will be carried out, a non-randomized controlled community trial, carried out in the municipality of Araruna-PB, with two groups of educational strategy in oral health: peer education (experimental group) and conventional education (control group). For data collection, three questionnaires will be applied: for socioeconomic, demographic and dental data; assessment of oral health literacy (BOHL-AQ); and assessment of oral health attitudes; the last two being applied before and after the intervention. Descriptive analysis will be performed and a test will be applied to assess the normality of the data. The psychometric properties of the BOHL-AQ with adolescents will be evaluated using factor analysis. For literacy and attitude data, a comparison of means before and after the intervention will be performed using the intragroup paired and unpaired Student t test. All analyzes will be performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 25.0, considering a significance level of p < 0.05.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents aged 15 to 19 years old, who obtain consent from their parents/guardians (for those under 18 years of age), voluntarily accept to participate in the study and are present on the day the questionnaires are administered.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents with physical and/or mental disabilities that make it impossible to follow the activities proposed in the intervention and respond to the questionnaires.