Background and objective: Oral disease is one of the most common diseases in the world and its prevention in the early ages will reduce the effects of this disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of using the PEN-3 model to promote oral health behavior among elementary school students.

Materials and methods: This study was conducted in two qualitative and quantitative phases on 120 students. In the qualitative phase, using depth interviews, factors affecting the model structures were extracted. Based on the results of the qualitative phase, a questionnaire was prepared that participants completed it in two stages- before and 6 months after the intervention. Educational intervention was based on according to the PEN-3 model structures. Questions and answers, teamwork and practical skills were used in the intervention phase. To analyze the data descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean ± SD) and analytical statistics (correlation coefficient, & paired t test) by the help of SPSS 20 were used at the significance level of 0.05.

Results: Qualitative findings were the impact of dental health and cosmetic appearance as positive perceptions, oral health posters in health centers and the impact of mass media as a positive enablers and listening to parents and teachers as positive reinforcement. Quantitative findings show that knowledge, attitude, performance and duration of brushing, before the intervention, among the two groups was not significant, but after intervention independent t-test showed that knowledge, attitude, performance and duration of brushing in the two groups was significant (p < 0.001) and the average of this item had increased in the intervention group.

Conclusion: Using the PEN-3 model is effective in identifying the cultural factors in improving the oral health-related behaviors.

Paper Type: Research Article