Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Feb 7, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 11, 2019 - Feb 25, 2019
Date Accepted: May 1, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
The effectiveness of educational mobile messages for assisting the prevention of early childhood caries: a randomized controlled trial protocol
ABSTRACT
This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of messages sent via cellphones as an adjuvant method for the prevention of early childhood caries (ECC). A single-blinded, randomized and parallel-group clinical trial will be conducted with dyads of parents/caregivers and children aged between 36 and 60 months, recruited in kindergartens and schools of Bauru-SP. The sample will be randomly assigned to two distinct groups, test and control, according to health literacy levels of parents, and age, gender and oral health status of children. Each 2 weeks, only participants allocated in test group will receive messages via WhatsAppTM containing preventive and education-related ECC information. The dyads will return to dentist each 3 months during a year, in order to the assessment of primary outcomes (sugar consumption, and ICDAS, visible plaque and community periodontal indices), and to receive dental care measures. Secondary outcomes (electronic health literacy and general perceived self-efficacy) will be determined only at baseline and after 12-month follow-up. The quality of randomization will be evaluated throughout the study, comparing test and control groups systematically by Student's t tests for continuous variables and Chi-square for categorical variables. Listwise deletion method will be applied in cases of drop-out, if the missing values satisfy the criteria of missing completely at random (MCAR); otherwise, multiple imputation data strategy will be conducted. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Levene tests will be used to determine the normality and homogeneity of data, respectively, which will indicate further statistical analyses for elucidating significant differences between groups (P<0.05). Student's t test or Mann-Whitney U test will be employed for parametric or nonparametric analyses, respectively. The present results will contribute to understand the importance of educational mobile messages towards the adoption of healthy behaviors, and consequently, the prevention of ECC in a given population.
Citation
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