1Professor & Head, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Rungta College of Dental Sciences & Research, Kohka-kurud, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh
2Post Graduate Student, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Rungta College of Dental Sciences & Research, Kohka-kurud, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh
3Reader, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Rungta College of Dental Sciences & Research, Kohka-kurud, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh
4Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Rungta College of Dental Sciences & Research, Kohka-kurud, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh
5Department of Public Health Dentistry, Institute of Dental Sciences, Siksha‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
6Post Graduate Student, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Rungta College of Dental Sciences & Research, Kohka-kurud, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh
*Corresponding Author: Dr. Abhinav Patel, Post Graduate Student, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Rungta College of Dental Sciences & Research, Kohka-kurud, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. Email: patel.abhinav38@gmail.com
Online published on 2 February, 2019.
To determine mother's knowledge & attitude towards their child's oral health, dental caries experience & oral hygiene status of pre-adolescent children's.
In this descriptive cross-sectional study 400 pre-adolescents children & their mothers were randomly selected from 8 private & government school. A 21 item, self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the mother's knowledge and attitude towards child's oral health. DMFT/def index was used to record dental caries experience & oral health status was recorded by using OHI-S index. Descriptive statistics, t-test & chi-square test were applied to analyse the data.
The Mean percentage of Mother's knowledge & attitude towards child's oral health of private & government school was 44.2% & 44.6%, 27% & 34.49% respectively. The mean±SD of oral hygiene status was 1.824±0.85 & 1.712±0.81, DMFT & def was 2.42±1.59 & 2.39±1.38, 0.61±1.40 & 0.50±¬1.46 among private & government school children respectively (p>0.05). Illiterate to literate mothers had 0.860 odds of having poor oral hygiene and 1.506 odds of having caries experience among their pre-adolescent children.
This study reflects that mother's knowledge & attitude towards their child's oral health is significantly associated with dental caries experience & oral hygiene status. The study signifies that as the mother's knowledge and attitude increases the caries experience decreases. Therefore, mother's education towards child's oral health is necessary.
Attitude, Child, Knowledge, Mothers, Oral health
