Development and validation of oral health education module delivered via Facebook for parents

Abstract

Oral health education of parents is evidently essential as they determine children’s oral health status. Presentation of information using audio-visual aids have led to improvement of parents’ oral health knowledge, however, reliability of information available in social media is questionable. The aim of this study was to develop and validate an oral health education module to be delivered via Facebook for parents. This mixed method research was carried out in three phases involving parents attending the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. In the first phase, 24 parents were engaged in four focus group discussions to explore their oral health education needs. The second phase involved the development of an oral health education module in the Malay language which was then subjected to content validation by 6 experts and face validation by 15 parents. The module’s usability was determined by 15 parents via System Usability Scale questionnaire in the third phase. Thematic analysis of the focus group discussions identified four themes which were parents’ perceived information needs, preferred information resources, information delivery as well as challenges and barriers faced. This result was utilised to develop an oral health education module consisting of six main topics: tooth eruption, oral hygiene care, diet and dietary advice, dental caries, professional dental care and importance of primary teeth. The module was uploaded in a Facebook group named “Children’s Oral Health Education”. Item-level Content Validity Index (I-CVI) for the module ranged from 0.83-1 while Scale-level Content Validity Index based on I-CVI was 0.95. Item-level Face Validity Index (IFVI) and Scale-level Face Validity Index based on I-FVI was 1. This showed that both experts and parents evaluated the module as understandable and appropriate. Usability testing revealed a mean score of 85.5 indicating good usability. The developed module proved to be valid with regard to its content and appearance. Channelling the module via Facebook was also deemed user-friendly with potential to promote children’s oral health care by empowering parents with evidence-based information.