In 2004, more than 176 thousand Community Health Agents (CHA) were working in Brazil in order to colaborate on health promotion actions and diseases prevention. It has been assumed that their participation through information and knowledge exchange could enable the population to improve their ability to face and fight health problems. The purpose of this study was to describe the effect of their participation on oral health perception in women and mothers (WAM). Social research with before-after design was carried out. The study population consisted of CHA from Rio Grande da Serra County, Sao Paulo State, and a representative sample of WAM. A form with closed questions was applied before and after CHA training to assess perception's changes. The answers were separately analyzed. McNemar test and 5% significance level was used. The results showed that the differences between CHA after training were statistically significant (p<0.05) for all fourteen items. Among WAM, statistically significant differences were not observed in only two questions (p>0.05). Changes on oral health knowledge were noticed, effect that could be attributed to the work of that kind of personnel carried out by home visits.
Oral health promotion; Community Health Agents; Women and mothers
