Department of Dental Hygiene, Baekseok University
Correspondence to Seon-Ju Sim, Department of Dental Hygiene, Baekseok University, 1 Baekseok Daehak-ro, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea. Tel: +82-10-4902-9394, E-mail: vision1991@bu.ac.kr
Volume 26, Number 1, Pages 129–37, February 2026.
J Korean Soc Dent Hyg 2026;26(1):129–37. https://doi.org/10.13065/jksdh.2026.26.1.14
Received on January 21, 2026, Revised on February 10, 2026, Accepted on February 19, 2026, Published on February 28, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 Journal of Korean Society of Dental Hygiene.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0).
Objectives: This study assessed the effects of a community-based oral health promotion project course on social responsibility and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) awareness. Methods: Thirty-eight dental hygiene students enrolled in a community dental hygiene course at a four-year university located in City C completed a survey consisting of 27 items on social responsibility and seven items on ESG awareness. Results: Following completion of the community-based oral health promotion project course, students demonstrated improvements in social responsibility, responsibility attitude, responsibility competency, responsibility efficacy, and responsibility performance. The participants’ awareness of ESG significantly increased after the course (p<0.05). Students who expressed higher satisfaction with the course showed greater increases in both ESG awareness and social responsibility than those who expressed lower satisfaction (p<0.05). In addition, the post-course increase in ESG awareness was positively correlated with an increase in social responsibility (p<0.05). Conclusions: These findings suggest that community-based project-based courses may serve as effective educational strategies in dental hygiene programs to promote sustainable oral health practices.
Community health services, Environment, Governance, Oral health, Project class, Social responsibility