Learning programmes and teaching techniques to enhance oral health literacy or patient-centred communication for healthcare providers: A systematic review

Objective To investigate the learning programmes and teaching techniques used in interventions to enhance oral health literacy (OHL) or patient-centred communication (PCC) for healthcare providers. Materials and methods A systematic review of OHL and PCC were obtained from four electronic databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, ProQuest and Scopus) was undertaken. These searches covered the period from January 2008 to December 2017. The quality assessment tool was the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal tool for systematic reviews of effectiveness. Results The final review included nine studies amongst a total of 1475 studies. They showed three learning programmes (workshops, training and community-based rotation) and 17 related teaching techniques to promote OHL and PCC. The most commonly used learning programmes to enhance OHL and PCC for healthcare providers were workshops, and the teaching techniques included feedback and reflection. The intervention periods of the programmes took 20 minutes to half a day. The three studies did not have a follow-up, whilst the rest showed a follow-up range of 2 months to 3 years. Interestingly, there was one study, which applied double follow-ups to show the effectiveness of the programme. Conclusion Either workshops or training programmes with a combination of teaching techniques were effective in terms of enhancing their OHL or PCC. The more frequent follow-up might increase the long-term effectiveness of the learning programme.