Difference in Effectiveness of Dental Health Education between Braille and Audio Method towards the Knowledge and Oral Health (OHIS) Score among the Blind Children in Karya Murni Foundation, Tunanetra Foundation and Binjai Special Needs Foundation

摘要

Blind children are the children with weak eyesight or complete loss of vision. Limitation of vision affects their ability to gain knowledge regarding oral health which will affect their oral hygiene status. This aim of this research is to determine the difference in effectiveness of dental health education between the audio and Braille method towards the knowledge and OHIs score among the blind children. This is an experimental research with pre and post test group design. This research comprised of 93 samples which were divided into two groups such as audio group (44 samples) and Braille group (49 samples) according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The knowledge and oral hygiene score were individually evaluated using questionnaire and OHIs index. The evaluation was taken before, on the 1st week and 1 month after the dental health education. Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney test were used to analyze the difference in effectiveness of dental health education between the audio and Braille method. The results showed that there was a significant increase in knowledge score and decrease in OHIs score in both method (p=0.000). There was no significant differences in gaining knowledge and decreasing the oral hygiene score between the both methods (p>0.05). Therefore, dental health education using the audio and Braille is effective in improving the knowledge and oral hygiene score among the blind children.