Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Parents toward (Infant & Child) Oral Health in Family Medicine Center at PSMMC, Riyadh

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the infant/child oral health (IOH) related knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of parents in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 327 parents. Visiting the family medicine center at prince sultan military medical city, Riyadh Saudi Arabia. A 39-item questionnaire covering sociodemographic characteristics and questions pertaining to KAP regarding OH care will used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics, Student's t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and Scheffe’s test will use for the statistical analysis (P ≤ 0.05). Results: The result showed that majority of the parents had good knowledge regarding OH, knowledge of cleaning (92.4%) and knowledge of amount of sugar (88.1%). The parents of age group (30 to 39) years (n=147) reported the highest mean (knowledge, attitudes, and practice) scores among all other age groups with a knowledge mean score of (6.80± 1.73), an attitude mean score of (8.86±1.37), and a practice mean score of (5.14± 1.86). Female parents showed a significantly higher mean knowledge, attitude and practices scores than the male parents. In addition, middle income level parents’ group (n=295) reported higher knowledge mean score compared to low-income parents’ group (n=15) with mean difference d=1.15, p=.041. Conclusion: Parents knowledge about maintaining oral and dental health care for infant/child was inadequate. Essentially, medical professionals are the initial ones to interact with expecting and new moms. Therefore, need to raise parents’ awareness about oral and dental health for infants/ child, through develop and implementation long-term education and promotions programs.