Oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices ...

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May 2, 2013 - and practices among secondary school students in the Al-Karak. Governorate. Method: .... brushing is condidered an easy and affordable procedure for people of ..... school children's oral health in rural California: Intersections.
Research

Oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices among secondary school students Abstract Objectives: To evaluate the oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices among secondary school students in the Al-Karak Governorate. Method: A cross–sectional school-based study was conducted from February to May 2012. Multi-stage random sampling was used. Six secondary public schools within Al-Karak Directorate were chosen randomly. Data was analysed using SPSS and P value was considered significant at 0.05. Results: The results show that the mean knowledge scores for the secondary school children was 60.8 with a statistically significant difference between male and female students (P80). The third part (eight questions) covered the students’ attitudes toward professional dental care, including feelings and experiences during the dental visits and their perceptions regarding dental care. The final part (six questions) covered the participants’ practices regarding daily oral hygiene, frequency, duration, and families’ role in the supervision of their oral hygiene. Two academic staff members and two dentists evaluated the questionnaires for content validity, structure, and reliability. Furthermore, a pilot study was conducted on 42 secondary school students (22 males, 20 females). It took 10–13 minutes on average to complete the questionnaire. Based on the pilot test, some questions were added and others were deleted. However, to increase the students’ skills and knowledge, all school students were provided with a bulletin after the data was collected, containing information and pictures on oral care, such as: tooth brushing, oral hygiene methods, use of flossing, modification of dietary habits in Arabic.

Data analysis

Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17. Means and frequency distribution were calculated. The t-test was 195

Research Table 1. Socio-demographic background of the secondary school students Variable

n

%

Male

254

52.8

Female

227

47.2

Total

481

100.0

16–17

282

58.6

18–19

199

41.4

used to compare between different means and P