Developing a WHO African Region mOral Health Curriculum for Community Health Workers.

IF 3.2 4区 医学 Q2 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
Annals of Global Health Pub Date : 2025-08-06 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.5334/aogh.4655
Brittany Seymour, Donna Hackley, Miriam Muriithi, Danielle Burgess, Nikki Aflatooni, Dahee Chung, Nithya Ramesh
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Training allied health professionals in oral health promotion and disease prevention, and integrated into noncommunicable disease (NCD) management, has been shown to improve access to essential oral health services. Oral diseases in the WHO African region are a significant public health problem, and trained dental professionals are scarce. Objectives: The WHO African Regional Office (WHO AFRO) aims to create a novel tiered oral health workforce, beginning with community health worker (CHW) training on oral health, and utilizing combined in-person and virtual/digital learning through mobile technologies (mOral Health). Successful scale of the program will assist in improving the oral health knowledge, skills, and behaviors of CHWs in Africa, as part of their essential packages of basic services. Approach: Guided by a logic model framework, our approach for developing the mOral Health curriculum was based on a proven six-step model for curriculum development in health professions education. Steps 1-3 describe our approach for developing the training program: Step 1: Problem Identification and General Needs Assessment; Step 2: Targeted Needs Assessment; and Step 3: Goals and Objectives. Results: Step 4 describes the resulting curriculum and educational strategies. This is the WHO African region's first competency-based CHW training program universally accessible to all member states. Step 5 (Implementation) and Step 6 (Evaluation and Revision) are planned for subsequent work at a future stage of this project. Conclusion: The mOral Health curriculum for CHWs in the WHO African region leverages digital technologies as part of the WHO mHealth initiative and aligns with the WHO Global Strategy on Oral Health. This mOral Health curriculum can lay the groundwork for further development of an evidence-based, tiered oral health workforce in Africa and will integrate oral health services into the WHO AFRO agenda for the prevention, control, and management of NCDs across the region.

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为社区卫生工作者制定世卫组织非洲区域道德卫生课程。
背景:对联合卫生专业人员进行口腔健康促进和疾病预防方面的培训,并将其纳入非传染性疾病管理,已被证明可改善获得基本口腔卫生服务的机会。世卫组织非洲区域的口腔疾病是一个重大的公共卫生问题,训练有素的牙科专业人员很少。目标:世卫组织非洲区域办事处(世卫组织非洲区域办事处)旨在建立一支新型分层口腔卫生工作队伍,首先对社区卫生工作者进行口腔卫生培训,并通过移动技术利用面对面和虚拟/数字相结合的学习(道德卫生)。该方案的成功实施将有助于改善非洲卫生保健员的口腔卫生知识、技能和行为,并将其作为一揽子基本服务的一部分。方法:在逻辑模型框架的指导下,我们开发道德健康课程的方法是基于一个经过验证的卫生专业教育课程开发的六步模型。步骤1-3描述了我们开发培训计划的方法:步骤1:问题识别和一般需求评估;第二步:目标需求评估;第三步:目标和目的。结果:步骤4描述最终的课程和教育策略。这是世卫组织非洲区域第一个面向所有会员国普遍开放的以能力为基础的卫生保健培训规划。步骤5(实施)和步骤6(评估和修订)是本项目未来阶段的后续工作计划。结论:世卫组织非洲区域卫生保健员的道德健康课程利用数字技术作为世卫组织移动健康倡议的一部分,并与世卫组织全球口腔健康战略保持一致。这一道德卫生课程可为进一步发展非洲循证分层口腔卫生工作队伍奠定基础,并将口腔卫生服务纳入世卫组织非洲区域办事处预防、控制和管理非传染性疾病的议程。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Annals of Global Health
Annals of Global Health PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH-
CiteScore
5.30
自引率
3.40%
发文量
95
审稿时长
11 weeks
期刊介绍: ANNALS OF GLOBAL HEALTH is a peer-reviewed, open access journal focused on global health. The journal’s mission is to advance and disseminate knowledge of global health. Its goals are improve the health and well-being of all people, advance health equity and promote wise stewardship of the earth’s environment. The journal is published by the Boston College Global Public Health Program. It was founded in 1934 by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as the Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine. It is a partner journal of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health.
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