Brighter smiles Africa - translation of a Canadian community-based Health-promoting school program to Uganda
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Taylor & Francis
Abstract
Description
Project goal: To adapt a successful Canadian health-promoting school initiative to a Ugandan context through international partnership. Rationale: Rural children face many health challenges worldwide; health professionals in training understand these better through community-based learning. Aboriginal leaders in a Canadian First-Nations community identified poor oral health as a child health issue with major long-term societal impact and intervened successfully with university partners through a school-based program called “Brighter Smiles”. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda (MUK) sought to implement this delivery model for both the benefit of communities and the dental students. Key steps/hurdles addressed: MUK identified rural communities where hospitals could provide dental students with community based learning and recruited four local schools. A joint Ugandan and Canadian team of both trainees and faculty planned the program, obtained ethics consent and baseline data, initiated the Brighter Smiles intervention model (daily at-school toothbrushing; in-class education), and recruited a cohort to receive additional bi-annual topical fluoride. Hurdles included: challenging international communication and planning due to inconsistent internet connections; discrepancies between Canadian and developing world concepts of research ethics and informed consent; complex dynamics for community engagement and steep
British Columbia Children’s Hospital Centre for International Child Health
British Columbia Children’s Hospital Centre for International Child Health
Keywords
Oral health, Rural health, Health professionals - Training, Dental services, Tooth brushing