Assessment of the Knowledge and Attitude of Mothers Regarding Oral Hygiene of Under Five Children in Selected Rural Areas of Ambala, Haryana

Abstract

Oral Health is an important component of general health and to maintain oral health oral hygiene plays amajor role. It has also become clear that causative and risk factors in oral diseases are often the same asthose implicated in the major general diseases. The objectives of the study were to assess the knowledgeand attitude of mothers regarding oral hygiene of under five children, to find out their relationship betweenknowledge and attitude and to determine the association of knowledge and attitude score of mothers ofregarding oral hygiene of under five children with selected variables. The research approach adopted forthe study was quantitative research approach and design was descriptive research design. The study wasconducted at selected rural areas of Ambala, Haryana. A total of 200 mothers having under five children wereselected by using purposive sampling technique. The tool used for the data collection consisted of SelectedVariables and knowledge questionnaire to measure knowledge of under-five mothers. The Reliability of thetool was calculated by Cronbach’s alpha and it was 0.81 for rating scale. Themajor findings revealed thatmean of knowledge score was 19.1 and mean of attitude score was 60.9 in the study. There was a significantassociation found between the level of knowledge and demographic variables i.e. type of family (p=0.00),Have dental problem before (p=0.03), Method used for oral hygiene (p=0.00) and concerned about oralhealth (p=0.00) in the present study. Hence,It was concluded from the study that the mothers have goodknowledge and positive attitude regarding oral hygiene of under five children