Knowledge, Attitude & Practice of Pediatricians regarding Oral Health and Early Childhood Caries

Abstract

Introduction: Educating pediatricians regarding oral health and early childhood caries can have a great effect on improving their knowledge, attitude & practice. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude & practice of pediatricians regarding oral health and early childhood caries in city of Isfahan.
 Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study that is cross sectional, 80 pediatricians were selected randomly and a questionnaire that reliability and validity of it had been approved, was distributed between participants. Questions separately in terms of knowledge, attitude and practice regarding oral health and early childhood caries were designed. Finally, after collecting the questionnaires, Statistical analysis was performed using descriptive analysis (mean and standard deviation), Pearson correlation and Independent T-Test with the 0.05 level of significance.
 Results: The mean knowledge score was 58.4, the mean attitude score was 79.2 and the mean practice score was 55.5 (from 100). There was a direct significant relationship between pediatricians’ knowledge score with attitude (p value < 0.001) and practice (p value < 0.001), in addition there was a direct significant relationship (p value < 0.001) between pediatricians’ attitude score and practice score too. There was no significant relationship between knowledge with age (p value = 0.12) but there was a significant relationship between attitude (p value = 0.01) and practice (p value < 0.001) with age. There was also a significant relationship between with knowledge (p value = 0.03), attitude (p value = 0.01) & practice (p value < 0.001).
 Conclusion: The mean of pediatricians’ knowledge and practice score were average. Since there was a significant relationship between knowledge and practice score, so increase the pediatricians’ level of knowledge and improvement the attitude and practice of them in this context is important and developed training programs are necessary for them.