African Dental Hygiene and Therapy | 01 November 2010
Methodological Evaluation of Rural Clinics Systems in Ethiopia：Randomized Field Trial for Clinical Outcomes Measurement
M, e, k, d, e, s, B, e, y, e, n, e, ,, T, a, d, e, s, s, e, A, s, r, a, t, ,, A, r, e, g, a, w, i, M, e, n, g, i, s, t, u
Abstract
Rural clinics in Ethiopia face challenges in providing consistent quality dental care due to limited resources and infrastructure. A two-arm randomized controlled trial was conducted with 150 participants randomly assigned to either an intervention group receiving enhanced dental care or a control group. Data were collected using standardised questionnaires and oral health assessments. The intervention group demonstrated statistically significant improvements in dental caries reduction (p < 0.05, 95% CI [12%, 28%]) compared to the control group. The randomized field trial confirmed that enhanced dental care interventions can lead to clinically meaningful improvements in oral health outcomes for patients in rural clinics. Rural clinic administrators should implement comprehensive training programmes and ensure consistent access to necessary resources to sustain these positive clinical outcomes. rural clinics, Ethiopia, randomized field trial, clinical outcomes, dental care Treatment effect was estimated with $\text{logit}(p<em>i)=\beta</em>0+\beta^\top X_i$, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.