The effect of oral health education through role playing on health behavior of educable mentally disabled boy students in Hamadan

Oral hygiene is important in children with mental disabled and one of the learning methods that is more durable on learning to role playing.
Aim: This study was performed to determine the effect of oral health education through role playing on observe health behavior of educable mentally disabled boys.
In the Quasi-experimental study, 34 mentally disabled boy students in the first high school period (Guidance) in Hamadan as census in 2014 were studied. Collecting data using observe health behavior questionnaire and oral hygiene index in two steps before and after the intervention were carried out in the form of role playing. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and T-student test and SPSS 16 statistical software were used.
Observe health behavior of students with mentally disabled before and after intervention from mean and SD 55.65± 12.76 to 79.82±12.24 was promoted and Significant differences was observed before and after the intervention (p= 0.001). There was a significant difference in the dimensions of the health behavior questionnaire before and after the implementation of the role play procedure (p= 0.001). As well as the oral health index of these students before and after the Role Playing model showed a Significant difference (p= 0.001).
The results showed that the Role Playing model has to improve the health behaviors of the students and as well as the simplified oral hygiene index are improved too. Considering that this method is easy and inexpensive, this method can be used to improve the physical health of mentally disabled students.