Oral Health Information in the Science, Tamil, and English Samacheer Textbooks of Upper Primary and Secondary Schools in Tamilnadu – A Content Analysis

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Authors

  • Nivedha Subburaman
     Department of Public Health Dentistry, Ragas Dental College and Hospital, #119, East Coast Road, Uthandi, Chennai, 600119 ,IN
  • Madankumar Parangimalai Diwakar
     Ragas Dental College and Hospital, #119, East Coast Road, Uthandi, Chennai, 600119 ,IN
  • Vivek Vikraman
     Ragas Dental College and Hospital, #119, East Coast Road, Uthandi, Chennai, 600119 ,IN
  • Mathumathi Ammaiappan
     Ragas Dental College and Hospital, #119, East Coast Road, Uthandi, Chennai, 600119 ,IN
  • Vijendranath Srinivasan
     Ragas Dental College and Hospital, #119, East Coast Road, Uthandi, Chennai, 600119 ,IN

Keywords:

Oral health, School, Textbooks, Health education
Geriatric Dentistry

Abstract

Background: Health education through school textbooks is effective in promoting knowledge, reforming, and improving health related behaviors among children. The study evaluated the amount of oral health information, readability and quality of contents in upper primary and secondary school samacheer textbooks, Tamilnadu.
Methods: Content analysis for the text books of 6 to 10th standard tamil medium samacheer syllabus were analysed by three examiners on the major health topics covered under Science, English and Tamil subjects. The contents were also assessed for the simplicity of the language using Flesch- Readability Ease (RE) Index.
Results: The results showed that the amount of oral health information given in the Science textbook was more than English and Tamil. In science, more amount of contents were found in the 9th standard textbooks, under the topic Tobacco and Oral diseases than others. The information was accurate (100%) mostly in the form of text (60.8%); they were very hard to understand (RE Score=14.03).
Conclusions: The potential of secondary school textbooks in delivering oral health messages is very little in samacheer school textbooks. Considering the critical importance of school students' age into account, incorporating health information in textbooks should be more strongly emphasized.

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Published

2018-09-18

How to Cite

Subburaman, N., Diwakar, M. P., Vikraman, V., Ammaiappan, M., & Srinivasan, V. (2018). Oral Health Information in the Science, Tamil, and English Samacheer Textbooks of Upper Primary and Secondary Schools in Tamilnadu – A Content Analysis. Journal of Pierre Fauchard Academy (India Section), 31(2-4), 125–130. Retrieved from https://informaticsjournals.co.in/index.php/jpfa/article/view/21131

Issue

Volume 31, Issue 2-4, June - December 2017

Section

Original Articles

License

All the articles published in JPFA are distributed under a creative commons license. The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright of their work (all usages allowed except for commercial purpose).

 

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