Self-reported oral health attitudes and behavior of dentistry students

Abstract

Dentistry students in the Philippines undergo 6 years of undergraduate dental education as their foundation to acquire the skills necessary to prevent, diagnose, and treat oral diseases, and educate their future patients. One of the learning outcomes of the entire course is to make them effective role models in the maintenance and improvement of their patient’s oral health. Throughout their undergraduate years, oral health attitudes and behaviors are formed and may be modified. This study aimed to compare 4th-year preclinical and 5th-year clinical dentistry students in terms of their oral health attitudes and behavior. The research employed a descriptive cross-sectional research design. Purposive sampling was done using the Hiroshima University-dental behavioral Inventory (HU-DBI) questionnaire. The questionnaire contains 20 questions, which focus on oral health attitudes and behavior, with a dichotomous response format of “Agree” or “Disagree,” giving one point in favor of good oral health attitudes and behavior for a maximum score of 12. Data was collected via an online survey using Google Forms shared in the appropriate year levels’ official social groups. Higher mean scores indicate good oral health attitudes and behavior. The HU-DBI scores of the two groups were compared using the Mann–Whitney U-test. A total of 225 dentistry students in a Philippine private dental college answered the survey, with 119 responses from the 4th year (41% response rate) and 106 responses from the 5th year (77% response rate). The overall mean score of answers favoring good oral hygiene was marginally higher in 4th-year preclinical students (M = 7.17, Standard deviation [SD] = 1.37) than in 5th-year clinical students (M = 7.15, SD = 1.24) but showed no statistical significance in their difference, z = −0.412, P = 0.681. There is no significant difference in the oral health attitudes and behavior between the 4th-year preclinical students and 5th-year clinical dental students. Future researchers can look into increasing the sample size and having respondents from other dental universities to provide a wider picture at a national level. Reinforcing oral health education for clinical students may be beneficial.