Comparing the Effectiveness of Face-to-Face and Non-Face-to-Face Training on Oral and Dental Health Behaviors in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Objective: Diabetes is closely related to oral and dental health. Several oral diseases and disorders are associ-ated with diabetes. The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of face-to-face and non-face-to-face training of oral and dental health behaviors based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) in patients with type 2 diabetes.Materials and methods: This study was conducted among patients with type 2 diabetes referring to comprehensive health centers in Andimeshk in 2021. One hundred twenty patients with type 2 diabe-tes were randomly divided into two groups: a face-to--face(60 patients) training group and a non-face-to-face (60 patients) training group. For the face-to-face train-ing group, training programs were conducted through lectures with questions and answers, group discus-sions, and videos in three 60-minute sessions; and for the other group through the presentation of patient education pamphlets. The results were collected in two stages before and two months after the intervention using a questionnaire. Then the data were analyzed using a chi-squared test, t-test, and paired t-tests in SPSS Statistics 22.0.Results: A total of 120 patients participated in this study. The patients' mean age was 51.5 +/- 8.57 and 51.9 +/- 10.1 years in the control and the intervention group, respectively. In both groups, 60% of the participants were female and 95% were married. The duration of diabetes in 57.5% of them was 5-10 years. After the im-plementation of the intervention, a significant increase was observed in the mean scores of all HBM constructs in the face-to-face training group (p < 0.001). However, there was no significant change in the mean scores of the HBM constructs in the non-face-to-face training group after the intervention (p > 0.05).Conclusions: This study showed that the design and implementation of an in-person training program had a positive effect on improving oral and dental health behaviors in patients with diabetes based on the HBM. (Clin Diabetol 2022; 11; 6: 379-386)