TY - THES U1 - Dissertation / Habilitation A1 - Qadri, Ghalib T1 - Oral health promoting program in the primary school N2 - The aim of this study was to invistigate the effect of the oral health component of a general health promoting program implemented in primary schools of Greifswald city and east Pomerania region. Methods: This program was part of an innovative multidisciplinary general health promoting program, a longitudinal collaborative project based on health competence concept. Seven hundred and forty students with an age range 9-12 years (mean 10.34, SDĀ±0.56, 48% females) were recruited from the fifth grade students of different 18 primary schools. The schools were randomly allocated into two groups. Oral health education was provided to the teachers in the intervention schools and then they conveyed it to their students, while no additional measures were conducted in the control schools. School dental examinations as well as questionnaires for the students and their parents were conducted at baseline and after one and half year of the program. Results: A significant correlation between caries increment and intervention/control group was reported, with a 35% higher risk in the control group. High socio-economic status has a significant highly protective effect in the intervention program with a reduction in incidence risk ratio of 94% (p < 0.001). In the low socio-economic status no preventive effect could found. The association between overweight/obese students and caries increment was border line significance (IRR 1.37, p = 0.055). The intervention program left a protective effective on the students who reported; lower tooth-brushing frequency, do not take care of their teeth, and do not consider sound and healthy teeth. Conclusion: The implemented program was effective in improving dental health, especially among students with high socio-economic status, but failed to achieve an effect in the low socio-economic group. The program was successful in maintaining a good dental health status among students who lack for the essential oral health competence items at the beginning. Social inequalities are an important issue which was partly tackled with a competence-based health promoting program, therefore, additional 76 compulsory preventive measures, such as daily or weekly tooth-brushing at school, should be seriously considered as behavior-centered approach. KW - Oral Health promotion KW - Schools KW - caries prevention program KW - oral health competence Y2 - 2010 U6 - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:9-000861-9 UN - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:9-000861-9 ER -