Abstract

The purposes of this research were to develop and verify a model for administration of student dental health promotion work for basic education schools in Thailand. This research employed both the qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The former methodology was employed in the model development stage; while the latter methodology was employed in the model verification stage. Key informants for the qualitative study were 53 specialists. The research sample for the quantitative study consisted of 72 basic education schools in Thailand classified into 36 schools with best practice in student dental health promotion administration and 36 basic education schools with ordinary practice in the counterpart administration. Informants from the schools totaling 726 randomly selected persons consisted of 72 school principals, 72 health care teachers and 582 classroom teachers. The data collecting methods for the qualitative study were the in-depth interview of 53 specialists and focus group discussion involving specialists; while that for the quantitative study was the use of a rating scale questionnaire, with reliability coefficient of .966, to collect data from the research sample. Qualitative data were analyzed with content analysis; while quantitative data were statistically analyzed using the frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, and confirmatory factor analysis. Research findings were as follows: (1) The developed model for administration of dental health promotion work in basic education schools consisted of five components: (a) policy formation and administration, (b) creation of school environment conducive to dental health promotion, (c) provision of knowledge on dental health education, (d) provision of services for dental health promotion, and (5) creation of relationships among the school, parents, and the community. (2) Verification of the developed model by using it to evaluate and compare the administration practice of student dental health promotion work in basic education schools with the best practice with that of other basic education schools in general revealed that the developed model was valid and feasible, as it could show that the dental health promotion administration work in the best practice schools was practiced at the significantly higher level than that in basic education schools in general at the .01 level. Also, the results of factor analysis of the data confirmed the validity of the model. The main recommendation was that the developed model should be adopted in basic education schools in Thailand in order to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the student dental health promotion work in school.