Impact of oral health education on oral health knowledge of private school children in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To assess the early effect of oral health education on oral health knowledge of primary and intermediate school students of private schools by utilizing pre/post questionnaires data from oral health educational projects in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia. Second, to examine topic-specific knowledge differences between genders, nationalities, and educational levels of the students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: = 1279) in primary and intermediate levels were extracted from the King Salman Centre for Children's Health (KSCCH) projects undertaken by Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy. Student's pre- and post-test data were analyzed for changes in oral health knowledge. Overall knowledge score and topic-specific knowledge scores were calculated and the differences between gender, nationality, and educational level were examined using Mann-Whitney U-test. Pre/post change in the oral health knowledge was evaluated by Wilcoxon's sign rank test. CONCLUSION: Primary and intermediate private school student's overall, and topic-specific oral health knowledge improved immediately after educational intervention provided by KSCCH. High knowledge gain was observed among female non-Saudi primary school students.