Abstract
Background
Educational actions are fundamental to produce care, and are part of the activities of community-based health workers (CHWs).
Objective
Evaluate the knowledge of CHWs about oral health (OH) and associated factors.
Method
This is a cross-sectional, quantitative study. All 481 CHWs linked to the municipalities belonging the 10th Health Management Section of the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, were invited to participate in the study. Data collection was performed in 2017 during the monthly sectional meetings by means of a validated, self-administered questionnaire. The associations were tested by multiple logistic regression, estimating the crude odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals.
Results
72.9% (351) of the CHWs participated in the study. They were mostly women, aged ≤40 years, with complete high school, monthly income of up to one Brazilian minimum wage, and with more than 10 years of work experience. 23.6% of the CHWs stated that the team frequently attended meetings, and 12.0% of them said that the dentists underwent training. As for the source of knowledge acquisition, 68.1% answered that it accrued from life experience. Female CHWs and those who did not mention the source of their knowledge about OH were 1.90 (95% CI: 1.10-3.28) and 3.59 (95% CI: 1.46-8.79) times more likely, respectively, to present a lower OH score (p<0.05).
Conclusion
The knowledge about OH of CHWs was satisfactory, but negatively influenced by gender and absence of report on the source of acquisition of OH information.
Keywords:
community-based health workers; oral health; family health strategy