EFEKTIVITAS PENYULUHAN DENGAN MEDIA AUDIOVISUAL DALAM MENINGKATKAN KESEHATAN GIGI DAN MULUT PADA MASA PANDEMI COVID-19 DI PANTI ASUHAN BAKTI KABUPATEN BATANG JAWA TENGAH

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on all aspects of the medical field, including dental and oral health counseling activities. Dental and oral health education is one way to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. As is known, transmission of the corona virus through droplets or saliva. The other hand, dental and mouth problems can be caused by lack of knowledge. Knowledge can be provided through counseling using media or tools to make it more effective and efficient. The study aimed to determine the effectiveness of oral health counseling with audiovisual media in increasing oral health knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic at the Bakti Orphanage, Batang Regency, Central Java. Material and Method: This study is a quasi-experimental study with one group pre-post test design without a control group on 47 foster children at the Bakti Orphanage. The pre-test and post-test questionnaires contain how to maintain dental and oral health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The assessment was carried out before and after counseling. Furthermore, data analysis was carried out using the Wilcoxon and Saphiro Wilk tests for normality tests. Results: The results of the study on the measurement of the initial value (pretest) obtained an average of 6.8511 while the (posttest) obtained an average value of 11.3191 which indicates a difference between the values before and after counseling. In the statistical test table in the Wilcoxon test, the value of p = 0.000 (p <0.05) shows that counseling using audiovisual media is effective in increasing oral and dental health knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: From the results of the pretest and posttest assessments, it can be seen that counseling with audiovisual media can increase dental and oral health knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic in foster children at the Bakti Orphanage, Batang Regency, Central Java.