Knowledge and Experiences of Mothers toward Their Children’s Oral Health in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Journal Title: International Journal of Medical Research Professionals - Year 2017, Vol 3, Issue 1
Abstract
Background: Oral health is an essential component of preschool children’s well-being and health. Despite of that, many preschool children suffer from dental caries at an early age, even before the first year of their life. Objectives: To determine knowledge, views and experiences of mothers towards oral health of their preschool children in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried at Jeddah city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One hospital was randomly selected (Dental North center, Ministry of Health). A representative random sample of mothers having children aged between 3 and 6 years and attended the out-patients` clinics of the selected hospital throughout the period of study conduction (December, 2016) was selected. Data was collected using an Arabic self-administered structured questionnaire. Results: The study included 187 mothers out of recruited 246 giving a response rate of 76%. About one-third of mothers (31.6%) were in the age group 30-34. Approximately half (49.2%) of mothers reported a combination source of information regarding oral health and hygiene whereas social media and dentist were reported alone by 24.6% and 23.5% of them, respectively. Overall, good knowledge and practice regarding oral health was reported by 54% and 17.6% of mothers, respectively. Working mothers were more knowledgeable than not working mothers (24.4% versus 11.9%), p=0.025. Mothers who rated their knowledge level about oral health as good were more knowledgeable than those rated it as poor (25.3% versus 6.3%), p=0.033. Regarding practice related to child`s oral health, good practice was reported at higher rate among mothers whose source of information was multiple source (59.8%) or dentists alone (59.1%) than those whose source of information was TV/newspapers (zero%), p=0.022. Mothers who rated their knowledge level about oral health as good had good child oral health`s practice than those rated it as poor (64.4% 12.5%), p=0.001. Mothers whose children had dental deformity had better practice regarding oral health than those who were unaware about this, p=0.017. Conclusion: There is an apparent gap between mother`s knowledge regarding child`s oral health and hygiene and their practice in this regards. Dentists and social media should play an essential role in improving maternal knowledge regarding child`s oral health as well as encourage them to transfer knowledge into actual practice.
Authors and Affiliations
Manal Abdulrahman M Bedaiwi, Sharifah Sulaiman Alzaidi, Ebtisam Saud D Alsubhi
Keywords
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- EP ID EP542635
- DOI 10.21276/ijmrp.2017.3.1.044
- Views 78
- Downloads 0
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