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Evaluating oral health promotion: need for quality outcome measures
Author(s) -
Watt Richard G.,
Harnett Robert,
Daly Blanaid,
Fuller Sabrina S.,
Kay Elizabeth,
Morgan Antony,
Munday Polly,
NowjackRaymer Ruth,
Treasure Elizabeth T.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.2006.00257.x
Subject(s) - medicine , psychological intervention , promotion (chess) , health promotion , outcome (game theory) , quality (philosophy) , health literacy , public health , environmental health , health care , nursing , philosophy , mathematics , mathematical economics , epistemology , politics , political science , law , economics , economic growth
– Oral health promotion effectiveness reviews have identified the need to improve the quality of the evaluation of interventions. A project was undertaken to identify and assess the quality of available outcome measures. This paper describes the methodology adopted and highlights the need for further development of oral health promotion outcome measures. Initially a thorough and comprehensive search of both the published and unpublished literature was undertaken to identify potential outcome measures. A set of quality criteria was then developed and used to assess the identified measures. The search identified a total of 1202 outcome measures of which 39% ( n = 466) were developed for use with schoolchildren. A high proportion of the identified measures were classified as health literacy and healthy lifestyle outcomes, appropriate for the evaluation of oral health education activities. Only 1% ( n = 12) of measures identified were classified in the healthy public policy category. When reviewed against the quality criteria, 49% ( n = 594) of the measures were considered satisfactory. The poorest performing measures were those classified as healthy lifestyle and health literacy measures in which only 33% ( n = 72) and 41% ( n = 240), respectively, were deemed to be of satisfactory quality. In conclusion, a significant number of oral health promotion evaluation outcome measures have been identified although their quality is highly variable. Very few high‐quality outcome measures exist for use in the evaluation of oral health policy and environmental interventions. The lack of appropriate and high‐quality outcome measures is hampering the development of oral health promotion.