Oral health Knowledge Attitude Practice of School students of KSR ...

ORIGINAL 

Oral health Knowledge Attitude Practice of 

School students of KSR Matriculation School, Thiruchengode. 

1 2 3 4 

Arun Kumar Prasad P , Shankar S , Sowmya J , C V Priyaa 

1 

Reader 

2 

Lecturer 

3 & 4 

Internee 

Department of Public Health Dentistry 

KSR college of Dental Science and Research 

KSR Kalvi Nagar, Thokkavadi 

Thiruchengode, Tamilnadu, India. 

Address for Correspondence : 

Dr. Arun Kumar Prasad P 

1/170D, Ex-Serviceman Colony, 

Fairlands, Salem - 636004 

Tamilnadu 

Mail ID: drarunkprasad@rediffmail.com 

Mobile No.: +91-9894160560 

ABSTRACT : 

Background 

The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude, and 

practice (KAP) toward oral health among 12 to 15 year-old students in 

KSR Matriculation School, Thiruchengode. 

Materials and Methods 

The study group comprised of 652 students who were in the 

age group of 12 to 15 years studying in KSR Matriculation School, 

Thiruchengode. Data on oral health KAP were collected by means of a 

self-administered questionnaire consisting of 30 open and closed 

ended questions. SPSS version 10.0 was used for statistical analysis. 

Results 

This survey found that only 30.7 percent of the students 

brush their teeth two or more times a day. Fear of the dentist was the 

main cause of irregular visit in 36.7 percent of study participants. In 

this study 26.1 percent responded as the last visit to the dentist was 

due to pain. The use of other recommended oral hygiene methods 

(23.9 percent) wasfound to be less; this also could be attributed to the 

lackof oral health education and/or the cost of such aids. 

Conclusion 

Results of this study suggest that oral health KAP of study 

participants are poor and needs to be improved. Systematic 

community-oriented oral health promotion programs are needed to 

improve oral health KAP of the school students. 

Keywords 

: KAP, Oral health, School students. 

Abbreviations and acronyms : KAP = Knowledge, attitude and 

practice. 

Introduction 

“While the eyes may be the window to the soul, 

1 

our mouth is a window to our body’s health” 

. 

The 

state of your oral health can offer lots of clues about 

your overall health. Oral health may be defined as a 

standard of health of the oral and related tissues 

which enables an individual to eat, speak and 

socialize without active disease, discomfort or 

embarrassment and which contributes to general well 

2 

being . 

It is the primary concern of oral health educators 

to impart a positive oral health knowledge and 

behavior in the society. This knowledge is usually 

derived from information and the information, when 

believed translates into an action. Behavior is the 

outcome when that action is sustained. However, only 

a weak relation exists between knowledge and 

3, 4 

behavior . Nonetheless, there are reports that there 

is an association between increased knowledge and 

5, 6 

better oral health . 

By virtue of their professional role, students play 

a vital role in health promotion and preventive 

information dissemination among the family and their 

society. It is therefore important that their own oral 

health knowledge is good and their oral health 

behavior conforms to expectation of the population. 

Hence the purpose of this study was to 

investigate oral health knowledge, attitude and 

practice among School students of KSR Matriculation 

School, Thiruchengode. 

Materials and methods: 

By simple random sampling method, among the 

1347 of KSR Matriculation School, 652 students aged 

12 to 15 years of different financial status were 

selected for the study. The questionnaire survey which 

included 29 items with opened and closed ended 

questions were used. The questionnaire covered the 

perceived mouth health status, knowledge of mouth 

health and attitude, mouth health practices, dietary 

habits and behavior towards dental program to 

evaluate the oral health knowledge, attitude and 

practice of the students. The students received a full 

explanation of how to fill in the questionnaire. 

JIADS VOL -1Issue 1 Jan-March,2010 |05|

Oral health Knowledge Attitude Practice 

Arun Kumar Prasad & Shankar 

Furthermore, the investigator was always available 

during the completion of the questionnaire and the 

participants were encouraged to approach the 

investigator, whenever they needed to clarify at any 

point. 

Data analysis 

The data was analyzed using the SPSS version 

10.0 software. The individual scores were summed up 

to yield a total score and given in subtitles for each 

questions. Frequency distribution, number and 

percentage were calculated. 

Results 

This study was conducted to assess oral health 

KAP among 12 – 15 years old 652 School students of 

KSR Matriculation School, Thiruchengode. Age and 

gender distribution of the respondents were given in 

figure 1 and 2 respectively. Their fathers and mothers 

education were given in figure 3 and 4 respectively. 

The questionnaire results were split up into five 

sections as perceived mouth health status, knowledge 

of mouth health and attitude, mouth health practices, 

dietary habits and behavior towards dental problem 

and given in the tables 1 – 5 respectively. 

Discussion 

This study assessed oral health attitudes, 

knowledge, and practice of School students of KSR 

Matriculation School, Thiruchengode. In the present 

study, the participants in the age group of 12-15 years 

were selected by simple random sampling method. 

The data were collected by means of structured 

questionnaires. 

In this study, it was also found that 1.8 percent of 

fathers of study participants were illiterate (fig 3), while 

it was 3.5 percent for mothers (fig 4) which is 

significantly less when compared to other occupation. 

The present study cannot be exactly compared with 

the other studies but careful observations can be 

made with the other studies. 

Table 1. Perceived mouth health status 




Table 2. Knowledge of mouth health and attitude 

Table 3. Mouth health practices 




Tabel 4. Dietary habits 

Table 5. Behaviour towards dental problem 




Figure 1. Age distribution of the respondents 

Figure 3. Distribution of father's education 

of the respondents 

Figure 2. Gender distribution of the respondents 

Figure 4. Distribution of mother's education 

of the respondents 

Perceived oral health status 

2.1 of percent the participants considered their 

oral health status was poor which was very less when 

compared to a previous study by Benoit Varenne et al 7 

where it was 63 percent and it indicates that the 

present study respondents does not really understand 

what constitutes the oral health status. In this study the 

57.7 percent agreed that regular brushing prevents 

all tooth problems, 24.2 percent disagreed and 17 

percent don’t even know about that which indicates 

poor knowledge on their perception of oral health. 

Oral health knowledge and attitude 

Awareness of the importance of tooth brushing 

for caries prevention was high (57.7 percent) among 

the study population. This finding is similar to study by 

7 

Varenne et al., where majority of children in urban 

areas reported that tooth cleaning and regular dental 

visits may prevent oral disease. 

Oral health practices 

This survey found that only 30.7 percent brushed 

their teeth two or more times a day, but in a study by 

8 

Zhu et al. it was 44.4 percent. In the present study 

subjects reported irregular times of tooth brushing as 

1.2 percent once in a week and 5 percent as never 

9 

brush their teeth similar to study by Al-Omiri et al . The 

use of other recommended oral hygiene methods 

(23.9 percent) wasfound to be less; this also could be 

attributed to the lack of oral health education and/or 

the cost of such aids. In contrast, Hamilton and 

10 

Coulby found that a high percentage [44 percent] of 

the sample they studied in north eastern Ontario used 

dental floss, reason for this may be because 

significant resource allocation to health education 

programs are carried out. 




In the present study, it was found that female 

performance was better than male performance in 

oral health practices which was similar to study by El- 

11 

Qaderi and Taani . Females performed the oral 

hygiene practices better than their male counterpart 

12 

which is in agreement with other previous studies . 

This difference can attributed to a higher concern 

regarding personal hygiene and health care among 

females. 

Behavior (practice) toward dental problems 

Students had positive attitudes toward their 

dentists; nevertheless, they indicated that they feared 

dental treatment. Fear of the dentist was the main 

cause of irregular visit in 36.7 percent of study 

participants which was very high compared to study by 

11 

El-Qaderi and Taani et al. In the present study, the 

participants were mainly from lower socioeconomic 

strata. It can also be considered that because of the 

high cost of dental treatment may have limited the 

accessibility of dental care. 

In this study 26.1 percent responded as the last 

visit to the dentist was due to pain, 26.1 percent 

responded as regular visit and 43.9 percent by others 

motivation. Though high percentage of study 

participants had pain from teeth (59.7 percent) during 

past 12 months, their dental visits were infrequent and 

it was similar to the study by Varenne et al (35.1 

7 

percent) . In contrast to this, in the studies by Petersen 

13 14 

et al. [66 percent] and Wierzbicka et al., [61 

percent], a high percentage of the study participants 

claimed annual dental visit. 

Dietary habits 

In the present study 33.7 percent and 27.9 

percent consume sweet and soft drinks at least once in 

a day respectively. In the study by Harikiren et al high 

proportion of study participants reported having 

hidden sugar every day: soft drinks (32.1 percent), 

milk with sugar (65.9 percent), and tea with sugar 

(56.1 percent) and it was very high compared to study 

12 

by Petersen et al. 

Based upon the present study findings, oral 

health KAP of the surveyed students were poor. This 

poor oral health-related KAP have to be addressed 

and focused upon as an important component of any 

comprehensive oral health program. 

Results of this study suggest that oral health 

related KAP of the study participants are poor and 

needs to be improved. Systematic communityoriented 

oral health promotion programs are needed 

to improve oral health KAP of students. Inclusion of 

more oral health orientation program in their 

curriculum would improve further, their oral health 

behavior and knowledge, so as to be a good model to 

the community. 

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