Parent's Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards Oral Health of their Children with Primary Dentition: A Cross sectional Study

Abstract

مستخلص الرسالة ( باللغة الإنجليزية ) 2.3 باللغة الأجنبية: Oral health is an essential factor affecting the general health of children. Dental caries is a multifactorial disease with its severity being affected by many factors. Environmental factors have a primary effect on caries development. Parents or caregivers are the role models for their children regarding oral health habits. Dental care professionals believe that efforts exerted to improve parental oral health literature and behaviors would be positively reflected in their children's oral health, as children with unfavorable oral health routines are more susceptible to have dental caries in comparison to those having good habits. The present study was a cross-sectional study performed in the Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health Department, Faculty of Dentistry, Cairo University to assess the oral health knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of parents of children with primary dentition and the caries prevalence of their children. Data was obtained through a written closed questionnaire which was translated from English to the Arabic language; for the assessment of the parents' KAP scores and via clinical examination of the children for the assessment of caries prevalence by calculation of their dmf scores. Regarding (KAP) scores results; the inadequacy percentage was calculated of (40%) of the total score. Knowledge score was revealed as (92.69%) and (7.31%) for adequate and inadequate knowledge respectively with a significantly strong negative correlation between (dmf) score and knowledge adequacy percentage. For Attitude score; inadequacy percentage was (100%) and (0%) for adequate and inadequate attitude respectively, with an insignificant weak negative correlation between (dmf) score and attitude adequacy percentage. Finally, practice adequacy percentage was reported as (44.52%) and (55.48%) for adequate and inadequate practice respectively, with a significantly strong negative correlation between practice and (dmf) score. Regarding the mean (dmf) score of the children in the selected children ages (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6); they were (13), (2), (6), (6), (7), and (8) respectively; and was significantly affected by parent’s knowledge but weakly affected by their attitudes.

From the present study results, it was concluded that a great number of parents have adequate knowledge and attitude, although having inadequate practice. Caries prevalence of the children was significantly affected by their parent’s knowledge but weakly affected by their beliefs and attitudes. The poor practice of parents revealed in this study had a strong negative influence on children's caries prevalence.