ABSTRACT
@#Introduction: Caregivers and parents are important to the healthy development of children. Therefore, this study was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitude and oral health practice among caregivers of children with disabilities. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among caregivers in three special boarding schools in Kuantan, Pahang, who cared for 7 to 17 years old disabled children using self-administered questionnaires. Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-square test were used to analyse the data. Results: Most caregivers were female (73.2%). The overall mean knowledge score was 87.75%. All of caregivers have agreed that sugary or sticky food and drinks can cause caries and toothbrushing for children is important for oral health. All of the caregivers possess secondary educational level where 75% of the caregivers with tertiary educational level assist the children while brushing teeth. However, 71.9% of caregivers with tertiary educational level and 45% of caregivers with secondary educational level had shown poor oral health practice since they were frequently giving sweet food to the children. Surprisingly, most of the caregivers with secondary educational level (95.2%) and caregivers with tertiary educational level (85%) thought children with disabilities can brush their teeth independently. Conclusion: Despite having adequate oral health knowledge among the caregivers in the special needs boarding schools, their attitude and oral health practice however were not up to the necessary standards. The implementation of oral health promotion related programmes in the special needs boarding schools must be taken into consideration in order to tackle the oral health problems of children with disabilities.
ABSTRACT
Background: The present study aimed to assess the oral health knowledge, attitude and practices of tribal schoolchildren of Gujarat, India. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 693 tribal schoolchildren were surveyed using a self-administered, structured questionnaire. Children were grouped by age into 3 groups - 1 (3-5 years), 2 (6-9 years) and 3 (10-13 years). Analysis of Variance, Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation and linear regression analysis were used to assess the relationship between oral health knowledge-attitude (KA) scores and practice (P). Results: KA and P scores were highest for Group 2, followed by Group 3. The differences between scores of Groups 1 and 2, and Groups 1 and 3 were of statistical significance (P < 0.05). Pearson correlations between KA and P scores of study population and each study groups were positive indicating P increased with increase in KA. Linear relationship is seen between KA and P, indicating that oral health knowledge and attitude is a significant variable to predict oral health practices (P < 0.001). Conclusions: The study concluded that there were deficiencies in the tribal children’s knowledge and attitude towards oral health and oral health practices. However, all knowledge was not always converted into practice. [Rajal P NJIRM 2016; 7(5):64-68]