Trial reportBMC oral health2021
Development and evaluation of a gamified smart phone mobile health application for oral health promotion in early childhood: a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in BMC oral health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Digital Serious Games on Knowledge and Attitudes in Public Health Education: Systematic Review and Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- The Application of Gamification in Children's Oral Health Management: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Bridging smiles: AI-driven dental health awareness for the next gen-a systematic review.Frontiers in dental medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Interventions with pregnant women, new mothers and other primary caregivers for preventing early childhood caries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Cariogenic Diet Assessment and Analysis Tools in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.Oral health & preventive dentistry · 2024Pooled it
- A Gamified Mobile Health Intervention to Promote Physical Activity, Executive Function, and Mental Health in College Students: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Trial
- Development and evaluation of the effectiveness of a gamified oral health promotion app-happy teeth- in schoolchildren: a randomized controlled trial.BMC oral health · 2025Trial
- Impact of educational video intervention to improve oral health knowledge and beliefs among physicians and nurses.BMC oral health · 2025Trial
- Oral hygiene changes & compliance with telemonitoring device in individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities: a randomized controlled crossover trial.Clinical oral investigations · 2024Trial
- Using a Chatbot as an Alternative Approach for In-Person Toothbrushing Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Comparative Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Trial
- Innovations using digital technologies for periodontal diagnosis and prognosis: a narrative review.Acta odontologica Scandinavica · 2026Review
- Effectiveness of Mobile Health Applications Compared to Conventional Motivational Interviewing in Improving Toothbrushing Duration and Its Impact on Dental Caries Among 6-12-year-old Children: 12-month Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of clinical pediatric dentistry · 2026Article
- Digital Dentistry in Clinical Practice: A Scoping Review of Current Capabilities and Future Directions.International dental journal · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of web-based application for dental health promotion among elementary school teachers: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of education and health promotion · 2026Article
- Application of artificial intelligence in oral health management: challenges and opportunities.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- An approach to boost adherence to self-data reporting in mHealth applications for users without specific health conditions.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2025Article
- Quality Evaluating Mobile Health Apps for Oral Hygiene Management Using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS): A Systematic Review of Smartphone App Markets.Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran · 2025Review
- Effect of oral health education based on COM-B model on improving the oral health behavior of preschool children.Journal of education and health promotion · 2025Article
- Every bite counts to achieve oral health: a scoping review on diet and oral health preventive practices.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- Evaluating the effectiveness of web-based oral health education on enhancing mothers' awareness: a semi-experimental internet-based intervention.BMC oral health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThis study aimed to design a gamified smartphone application (app) and assess its efficacy for education of mothers regarding oral healthcare of their children.
methodsIn this pretest-posttest controlled clinical trial, a simple app and a gamified version of it were designed to enhance the oral health knowledge and practice of mothers. The app contains information about early childhood caries, health diet, sugars, baby-oral hygiene, fluoride effect, fluoride toothpaste, tooth-brushing training video and regular dental visits. The opinion of experts and 3 mothers were obtained and both apps were revised accordingly. The intervention was implemented on mothers of preschoolers referring to the specialty dental clinic of Tehran School of Dentistry in 2019. The mothers were randomly allocated to the simple app or gamified app group. Before the intervention, all mothers filled out a questionnaire regarding oral health knowledge and practice, and their demographics were collected. The plaque index (PI) of children was also measured. The mothers filled out the same questionnaire 1 month after the intervention, and the PI of children was measured again. Paired t test and linear regression model were used for statistical analysis of the data.
resultsTotally, 58 mother and child pairs entered the study; 40% of children were boys. The mean age of children was 4.7 ± 1.2 years. The mean knowledge score of mothers in the pretest was 10.5 and 11.3 in simple app and gamified app group, respectively, which changed to 13.1 and 14.3, respectively in the posttest. The mean practice score of mothers was 4.4 and 4.8 in simple app and gamified app groups, respectively in the pretest, which changed to 8.5 and 8, respectively in the posttest. The mean dental plaque index of children in the pretest was 0.8 and 1 in simple app and gamified app groups, respectively, which changed to 0.5 and 0.5, respectively in the posttest. Children had better Plaque control in gamified app group (P < 0.05).
conclusionAfter 1 month, both apps effectively improved the oral-health knowledge and practice of mothers while oral hygiene as a result of plaque control was superior in children of mothers using the gamified app. Trial registration IRCT, IRCT20131102015238N2. Registered 24 February 2019-Retrospectively registered, https://fa.irct.ir/trial/36600 .
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.