Journal List > J Korean Acad Oral Health > v.39(2) > 1057637

Park, Han, Kim, Lim, Kown, Kim, Oh, and Kim: Educational needs of an integrated health and oral health project for community dental hygienists

Abstract

Objectives

To determine the educational needs related to an integrated health and oral health project for community dental hygienists.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, a survey was administered to 1,190 dental hygienists working in community health centers and 627 (about 53%) responded. The dependent variable was educational needs from oral health projects; the independent variables were region, job assignments, job position, and degree of self-development. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square tests, with PASW 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), and the significance threshold was .05.

Results

The educational needs of community dental hygienists were found to be high, at about 58.5 points out of 100. The highest educational needs were for oral health projects linked to public health projects. In this regard, participants reported a high need for “identification of issues and projects suited to the current state of the region,” “establishment of strategies for integration of health and oral health projects,” and “prioritization.”

Conclusions

Professional education for community dental hygienists should be expanded to include integration of health and oral health. It should be based on the assessment of these professionals’ educational needs.

References

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Table 1.
Distribution by study population
Classification N % Mean±SD
Total 627 100.0
Region City 206 32.9
Town 253 40.4
District 168 26.7
Institution Public health center 480 76.6
Public health center branch 102 16.3
Oral health center 45 7.1
Job assignments Permanent worker 452 74.0
Contract worker 159 26.0
Job position Responsibility only for oral health project 158 37.1
Oral health project in parallel with dental clinic care 196 46.0
Oral health project in parallel with other tasks 72 16.9
Age (yrs) ≤29 72 11.8 43.0±7.9
30-39 105 17.3
40-49 369 60.7
≥50 62 10.2
Work experience (yrs) ≤10 208 36.3 15.8±9.5
11-19 50 8.7
≥20 315 55.0
Educational level College 375 61.5
University 183 30.0
Graduate school 52 8.5
Degree of self-development High 79 24.7
Medium 138 43.3
Low 102 32.0
Table 2.
Oral health project-related educational needs according to tasks
Duty Task Mean±SD*
Oral health project Total 58.5±16.9
Public oral health projects linked to other public health project 69.3±26.5
(Integrated community-based health promotion projects)
Project for the installation and operation of school dental health clinics 67.4±27.4
Oral health education and public relations project 62.8±17.6
Mobile public oral health care vehicle support project 61.1±32.0
Project for the installation and operation of dental health center in public health centers 60.2±25.6
Oral care center project for the disabled 59.1±30.0
Fluoride mouth rinsing project 56.4±25.6
Fluoride application project for children 55.9±27.0
Oral health project-related administrative services 54.1±22.3
Project for the installation and operation of school tooth-brushing facilities 53.2±28.1
Elderly fluoride application and scaling project 51.5±24.5
Water fluoridation project 50.5±32.9

*Denote by descriptive statistics.

Table 3.
Educational needs for oral health projects linked to other health projects according to region and job assignments
Task Task elements Region P-value Job assignments P-value
City (%) Town (%) District (%) Permanent worker (%) Contract worker (%)
Low Medium High Low Medium High Low Medium High Low Medium High Low Medium High
Oral health projects linked to other health projects Planning of oral health projects linked to other health projects 15.6 47.8 36.7 5.6 31.5 62.9 9.1 37.7 53.2 .008* 11.6 38.4 50.0 5.7 39.6 54.7 .442
Identification of issues and projects suited to the local situation 16.3 45.0 38.8 6.0 29.8 64.3 6.8 39.2 54.1 .011* 11.0 37.4 51.6 5.9 37.3 56.9 .533
Prioritization 16.0 45.7 38.3 4.8 38.6 56.6 10.5 48.7 40.8 .049* 12.0 41.8 46.2 5.9 49.0 45.1 .393
Establishment of strategies of integration 14.8 40.9 44.3 5.6 31.5 62.9 6.3 41.8 51.9 .051 9.6 37.4 53.0 7.5 39.6 52.8 .884
with oral health and other projects
Execution of a common project by each project group 19.8 45.3 34.9 4.5 46.6 48.9 6.3 53.2 40.5 .007* 11.4 47.7 40.9 7.3 49.1 43.6 .674
Evaluation of the community-group operating system 17.5 43.8 38.8 10.7 46.4 42.9 6.8 51.4 41.9 .336 12.6 46.4 41.0 10.0 48.0 42.0 .884
Compilation of post-project reports and management of the health information system 18.1 49.4 32.5 5.6 43.8 50.6 11.5 41.0 47.4 .041* 11.5 45.5 42.9 11.1 44.4 44.4 .980

*Denote by chi-square, P<0.05.

Table 4.
Educational needs for oral health projects linked to other health projects according to assigned tasks and degree of self-development
Task Task elements Jop position P-value Degree of self-development P-value
Responsibilityonly for oral healthproject (%) Oral health project inparallel with dentalclinic care (%) Oral health projectin parallel withother tasks (%) Low (%) Medium (%) High (%)
Low Medium High Low Medium High Low Medium High Low Medium High Low Medium High Low Medium High
Oral health projects linked to other health projects Planning of oral health projects linked to other health projects 12.4 38.9 48.7 10.2 35.2 54.5 7.3 36.6 56.1 .840 12.0 36.0 52.0 6.2 40.7 53.1 3.7 29.6 66.7 .275
Identification of issues and projects suited to the local situation 11.5 40.4 48.1 7.2 36.1 56.6 10.8 29.7 59.5 .600 19.1 23.4 57.4 6.2 43.2 50.6 1.9 29.6 68.5 .004*
Prioritization 14.4 46.2 39.4 7.1 43.5 49.4 8.1 35.1 56.8 .236 19.1 34.0 46.8 6.2 53.1 40.7 3.7 31.5 64.8 .003*
Establishment of strategies of integration with oral health and other projects 9.9 36.9 53.2 10.1 37.1 52.8 7.1 35.7 57.1 .980 12.0 28.0 60.0 6.0 44.0 50.0 1.9 27.8 70.4 .040*
Execution of a common project by each project group 11.9 49.5 38.5 8.9 48.9 42.2 10.3 41.0 48.7 .803 16.3 38.8 44.9 7.3 57.3 35.4 5.5 34.5 60.0 .013*
Evaluation of the community-group operating system 12.4 51.4 36.2 13.3 42.2 44.6 10.8 43.2 45.9 .706 14.9 38.3 46.8 7.5 57.5 35.0 3.7 37.0 59.3 .018*
Compilation of post-project reports and management of the health information system 13.0 44.4 42.6 12.5 45.5 42.0 10.0 40.0 50.0 .931 14.0 40.0 46.0 12.0 55.4 32.5 7.4 25.9 66.7 .003*

*Denote by chi-square, P<0.05.

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