Citizen Science aims to enable citizens to develop research alongside researchers and healthcare professionals. Citizens, in the context of this project, are members of the public interested in the topic. Gum disease and caries are two of the most prevalent chronic diseases worldwide. They are preventable, but the best way to prevent them is unknown. Oral health assessment (of caries, gum disease and oral cancer) and its communication with patients is a key element in prevention. However, the current clinical guidelines on oral health assessment have not benefitted from systematic patient input that could help improve their dissemination and implementation. Citizen Science is a potential way to achieve this by engaging a large group of patients in improving oral health care.
We aim to improve patients’ experiences of oral health care delivery and assessment through Citizen Science by promoting patient-centred guideline implementation and better communication between dental professionals and citizens.
We will recruit participants to a Citizen Science online platform via social media, online platforms and dissemination in academia. We will include adults that speak English and live in the United Kingdom. Participants must have access to a computer and internet.
We will use an established Citizen Science platform to invite citizens to generate ideas to improve the dissemination and implementation of oral health risk assessment. The idea generation will be done in an interactive way, using a social media idea generation platform. The platform will have embedded educational messages about oral health and self-care that will help participants to improve their own oral health. Participant’s experience will be assessed at the start and end of the project via surveys embedded in the platform.
Principal Investigator: Beatriz Goulao
Funder: Wellcome Trust Institutional Support Funding at the University of Aberdeen
https://guideoralhealth.crowdicity.com/
Click here to view the GUIDE Protocol
Click the image below to view GUIDE - YouTube
Contacts
- Beatriz Goulao; beatriz.goulao@abdn.ac.uk