Android Application-Based Dental Disease Prevention Education on Dental Health Knowledge and Behaviour among Adolescents

Abstract

Background: Dental and oral health problems affect nearly half of the world's population. The 2018 Indonesian Basic Health Research reported that 57.6% of Indonesians experienced dental and oral health problems, with periodontitis affecting 67.8% of those aged ?15 years. Adolescents experience dental health problems that are not markedly different from those of children and adults, including gingivitis, periodontitis, dental caries, pulpitis, and dental calculus. One promotive strategy is education delivered through media that utilise current technology, namely Android-based applications, which are predominantly used by adolescents. Objective: This study aimed to analyse the effectiveness of Android application-based dental disease prevention education in improving dental health knowledge and behaviour among adolescents. Method: This study used a pre-experimental design with a pretest and posttest one group design. This manuscript reports the results of the intervention group, consisting of 53 junior secondary school (Madrasah Tsanawiyah) students in South Jakarta who received dental health education through the Android-based application “Edugi-Remaja”. Knowledge and behaviour were measured before and after the intervention using a validated and reliable questionnaire. Data normality was assessed using the Shapiro-Wilk test; the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was used to analyse the knowledge variable, and the Paired Samples t-Test was used for the behaviour variable. Results: The mean knowledge score increased from 7.96 ± 1.13 (pretest) to 8.77 ± 1.37 (posttest), a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001). The mean behaviour score increased from 35.40 ± 4.17 (pretest) to 37.34 ± 4.13 (posttest), also statistically significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: Android application-based dental disease prevention education using Edugi-Remaja significantly improved dental health knowledge and behaviour among adolescents, indicating its potential as a supportive digital health promotion medium in the school setting