MedPath

Mobile-health Intervention to Promote Oral Health in Adolescents: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Not Applicable
Recruiting
Conditions
Oral Health
Interventions
Behavioral: Adolescent e-pamphlets
Behavioral: Family HBM- mobile messaging
Behavioral: Adolescent HBM- mobile messaging
Registration Number
NCT05448664
Lead Sponsor
The University of Hong Kong
Brief Summary

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the family and behavioral theory based mobile-health behavioral intervention in enhancing adolescents'good oral health behaviors (mainly oral hygiene practice and free sugar intake control) and preventing common oral diseases (dental caries and periodontal diseases).

Detailed Description

The investigators propose a 30-months clustered randomized controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of Health Belief Model (HBM) and family-based mobile-health intervention in enhancing the adolescents' good oral health behaviors and preventing oral diseases.

This is a three-arm parallel-design cluster-randomized controlled trial. Parents and their children (12 to 15-year-old) will be recruited and randomized into 3 groups based on the school sites.

Messages targeted on six domains guided by HBM will be sent to the adolescents and their parents via mobile phone. Two blocks of HBM-based oral health messages, reminders, feedback and reinforcement messages will be delivered to both students and parents by mobile phone for 24 weeks; while the intervention of the other 2 groups will target on students only or using prevailing oral health education.

The primary outcomes will be caries increment of the adolescents 2-year post-intervention. Change in oral health self-efficacy and behaviors, dental plaque and gingival bleeding index will be the secondary outcomes.

The investigators anticipate the proposed family- and HBM-based behavioral intervention is more effective than HBM-based mobile-health intervention on adolescents alone or prevailing oral health education in improving the adolescents' oral hygiene behaviors, reducing free-sugar intake and preventing oral diseases.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
900
Inclusion Criteria
  • Chinese ethnicity;
  • Student living with their own parent(s) or primary caregivers;
  • Both student and parent(s) or primary caregiver having their own access to a personal mobile phone with certain Apps to receive the messages in time
Exclusion Criteria
  • Student currently on a special diet (e.g. severe inflammatory bowel disease);
  • Student has medical conditions know to affect growth or eating (e.g. diabetes, cystic fibrosis);
  • Enrollment in other oral health promotion programs or research studies.

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Adolescents e-pamphletsAdolescent e-pamphletsPrevailing oral health education by e-version of pamphlets through mobile messaging
Families HBM- mobile messagingFamily HBM- mobile messagingFamily- and HBM-based behavioral intervention using mobile messaging
Adolescents HBM- mobile messagingAdolescent HBM- mobile messagingStudent- and HBM-based behavioral intervention using mobile messaging
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Caries increment2 years

Dental caries increment (by tooth level) from baseline to 2 years follow up

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change of oral health self-efficacy2 years

Change from baseline self-efficacy at 2 years

Change of gingival status2 years

Change from baseline gingival bleeding (BOP%) at 2 years, as recommended by the WHO for conducting oral health surveys

Change of free-sugar intake2 years

Change from baseline average frequency of intake of sugary snack/drink per day at 2 years

Change of toothbrushing behavior2 years

Change from baseline average frequency of toothbrushing per day at 2 years

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong

🇭🇰

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

© Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved by MedPath