Mother’s Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice on Oral Health

Jafari A Gaeini P Fallah M Pirooz Hashemi B Zangooei M Koohpayehzadeh J 1. Research Center for Caries Prevention (RCCP), Dental Research Institute, Department of Community Oral Health, School of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2. Saveh University of Medical Sciences, Saveh, Iran 3. Department of Community Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Corresponding Author: jkuhpayeh@yahoo.com Background: Children learn oral hygiene from their parents. We conducted a study on parent’s knowledge, attitude and practice on oral health in Saveh City, in primary schools. Materials and methods: In this study, a standard questionnaire was used to evaluate mother’s knowledge, attitude and practice of on oral health. Mothers of 735 students in 16 primary schools (randomly selected) in Saveh were participated. Mother's knowledge, attitude and practice level were measured by 11, 9 and 5 questions with 36, 36 and 20 scores respectively. Chi-Square tests and ANOVA were used to analysis data. Results: The results showed that mothers had a mean scores of 19.29 (± 0.214), 23.52(±0.142) and 10.69 (69 0.119), in knowledge, attitude and practice respectively. There was a significant and direct relationship between knowledge and attitude, and also between knowledge and behavior levels (P<0.001). About 80% of the mothers brushed once or twice a day, and 90% of mothers used fluoride toothpaste. Daily use of dental floss was very low. About two-thirds of mothers only went to dental offices if they had problems. There was a significant and direct relationship between mother's education with their knowledge, attitude and performance (P<0.001). There was no relationship between mother's age and gender of students with their knowledge, attitude and performance levels. Conclusion: It is necessary to improve information of mothers, especially who are less educated to get better oral health behavior by information brochures, holding training classes and free dental examination services.