Effect of training intervention on primary health care workers' knowledge of oral health

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of a training intervention on primary health care workers knowledge of oral health in selected local government areas of Kwara state, Nigeria.

Design: A quasi experimental design, used multi stage sampling technique to select participants. Self-administered questionnaire was used to evaluate knowledge among PHC workers before and 6 months after training intervention was given. The training elements included oral anatomy, diagnosis, and prevention of common oral diseases.

Setting: Kwara state is one of the 36 states of the Federation; located in the North Central geopolitical zone of the country. Primary health care centers are fairly evenly distributed in all the 16 local government areas in the state.

Subjects: Fifty seven health workers were selected from 2 local government areas in the state as intervention group respectively. Control group was made of 58 health workers from 2 other local government areas who were not subjected to any intervention training. Both intervention and control group responded to same questionnaire.

Results: Mean age of participant was 40.1±8years. One hundred and three were females and twelve were males with a M:F ratio of 1:8. Community Health Extension Workers constituted 52 (46.0%), nurses 42 (36.5%) and other workers 21 (18.3%). Knowledge significantly improved from 15.6±3.6 to 16.8±2.3 pre and post-intervention among health workers in the intervention group. While the knowledge score in the control group was 15.4±2.9 (at pre-intervention) and 14.6±3.0 (at post-intervention). The odds of better knowledge of OH was 3.0 among nurses compared to 'others' (95.0% CI: 0.97-8.33).

Conclusion: Training of PHC workers is an effective strategy of improving the level of knowledge and the quality of primary healthcare delivery services in Nigeria.

Keywords: Primary healthcare, Oral health, knowledge, training intervention