Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Elementary Schools Students about Oral Health in Yazd

Abstract

Background and Aim: Oral health is the most important factor in public health in any society. Dental services emphasize primary preventive dental care services and in the next stages emphasize the secondary and tertiary prevention, health promotion and development of individual’s health. Despite great progress in fight against disease in the world, tooth decay is still the most common disease in the world, such as our country. The aim of this study was determination of knowledge, attitude and practice of fourth and fifth grade students of elementary schools about oral health in Yazd. Materials & Methods: This study was a cross-sectional research and conducted among 354 male and female students in fourth and fifth grade at elementary school in Yazd who were selected through randomize sampling method. Data were collected via questionnaires consist of demographic, knowledge (score range 0-22), attitude (score range 5-30) and practice (score range 0-8) questions. Data were analyzed by using SPSS-18 with descriptive and analytical tests such as independent T. test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient at α=0.05. Results: The results showed that, average knowledge score 15.59±2.5, 66.4% had good and 33.6% had medium knowledge. Average attitude score was 25.04±3.68. 90.4% had good, 9.3% had medium, and 0.3% had poor attitude. Average practice score was 4.45±1.33. 18.6% had good, 65.5% medium and 5.6% had poor practice. Boys' attitudes were more than girls (p=0.026). Conclusion: knowledge, attitudes and practice about oral health among students were at the medium level and education is emphasized. Because students reported teachers and health educator were most important sources of information, it seems we can achieve satisfying results by education through those channels.