Oral health knowledge and practices among healthcare students of Al-Jouf province, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Oral disease has an inverse relationship with good oral health practices. The present study was aimed at assessing the level of oral health knowledge and practices among healthcare students of Al-Jouf province, Saudi Arabia. All male and female students from the first to the fifth year of studying in different colleges (medical, dental, and college of allied health sciences) in Jouf University were included as the study sample. The study included 20 structured questions. Among the 20 questions, 12 related to oral health practices and 8 related to oral health knowledge. Chi-squared test was used to determine the association among variables, and Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the correlation between the scores of oral health knowledge and oral health practices. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done to see if there was any statistically significant association (P > 0.05) of knowledge and practice scores with level, gender, and college of study. The overall mean oral health knowledge score was 4.9 ± 2.3. The range for oral health practice score was from 0 to 12, and the overall mean score was 6.8 ± 2.9. Our observations concluded that the overall knowledge level of the students toward oral health was low, and visiting a dentist for regular dental checkup were not given importance by the students. Health practices of students and their knowledge towards oral health determines what and how they educate their patients in the future to create better oral health in society.