Effects of school‐based dental health education on knowledge, attitudes and behavior of adolescents in San Francisco

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Abstract
The short term effects of a series of classroom preventive dentistry presentations on dental health knowledge, attitudes and reported behavior of adolescents was studied in 854 boys and girls, 12-14-yr-old students enrolled in San Francisco [California, USA] middle schools, who were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. A written test composed of questions relating to factual dental health knowledge, home care practices and attitudes to dental health was answered by the experimental group at the beginning and end of the educational intervention and at comparable time intervals by the controls. There was a significant increase in knowledge for the experimental group (P < 0.001), as compared with the control group. Pre-existing attitudes were generally positive for most subjects. Although the educational intervention resulted in no significant differences between the 2 groups with regard to attitude, there was a significant positive change in attitude within the experimental group (P < 0.01) from pre- to posttest. There was a significant increase in the frequency with which the girls in the experimental group reportedly used the toothbrush (P = 0.01) and dental floss (P = 0.01).