Abstract
BackgroundChildren aged 6–7 years are in the early mixed dentition, which is a period of high prevalence of dental caries and other dental diseases and a critical period for the formation of oral health behaviors. Therefore, good oral hygiene habits of children and oral health knowledge of parents are very important. This study sought to explore the relationship between children’s oral health behaviors, parental oral health knowledge, parental choices of pit and fissure sealants, and parents’ education levels based on a large-scale sample size for the first time, and to compare the influences of parental education levels between parents.MethodsFamilies of the first and second graders of primary schools in Wuhan Hongshan District were included in this study. A total of 8446 questionnaires were collected to obtain comprehensive information on children’s oral health behaviors, parents’ oral health knowledge and parents’ pit and fissure sealants-related choices. The relationship between these outcome variables and parents’ education levels were studied using logistic regression analysis and chi-square test.ResultsParents who reported good educational background had more favorable oral health knowledge than those of other parents, and their children had better oral hygiene behaviors. Four indicators of five measures to children’s oral health behaviors were significantly associated with mother’s education level (P < 0.05), and three of them were related to father’s education level (P ≤ 0.01). Moreover, seven indicators of eight measures to parents’ oral health knowledge were significantly related to mother’s education level (P < 0.05) and four of them were affected by the father’s (P < 0.05). In addition, parents with higher educational attainments paid more attention to the completeness of medical facilities, the environment of dental practice, the distance to treatment sites, and took less concern of children’s willingness when choosing the pit and fissure sealants sites.ConclusionsIn families with children at the early mixed dentition stage, parents with higher education levels tend to have better oral health knowledge and more oral health care needs, such as pit and fissure sealants. In addition, children of parents who have better educated parents tend to perform better oral hygiene practices.
Highlights
Children aged 6–7 years are in the early mixed dentition, which is a period of high prevalence of dental caries and other dental diseases and a critical period for the formation of oral health behaviors
This paper will focus on the age group of 6 to 7 years, since children of these ages are in the early mixed dentition that permanent incisors and molars start to erupt and the deciduous teeth remain [2]
Study design Funded by the Hongshan District Government, the Hongshan Longitudinal Study on Pit and Fissure Sealants Application (HoLSPA) project aimed to provide free oral examination and pit and fissure sealants (PFS) for the first and second graders in Hongshan District, Wuhan, China, and at the same time carry out relevant research through oral examinations, data collection and online surveys
Summary
Children aged 6–7 years are in the early mixed dentition, which is a period of high prevalence of dental caries and other dental diseases and a critical period for the formation of oral health behaviors. The results of the fourth National Oral Health Survey of China conducted in 2015–2016 found that the prevalence of permanent dental caries in children aged 12 to 15 years was 41.9%, the mean DFMT was 1.04, and the caries filling rate was 17.5% [1] These data suggest that the prevention of dental caries in Chinese children is still a problem worthy of attention. In China, 6 to 7 years of age is especially important as it is generally the age at which children begin primary school, which makes reliable samples accessible through the school system Children of these ages are able to acquire knowledge efficiently, which is a critical period for the development of oral hygiene habits [3]. It is notable that parental effects on children’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviors towards oral health are significant [7]
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