Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Mothers of Preschool Children About Oral Health in Qatar: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Health-related behaviors are influenced by knowledge and awareness, with oral health being no exception. It is well-known that oral diseases are influenced by social determinants. There is an association between the oral health knowledge of mothers and the status of their children’s oral health. In Qatar, the knowledge and practices of oral health in preschool children have not been previously reported. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and related practices of mothers of preschool children about oral health in Qatar. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed by the principals of kindergarten to mothers of children attending 16 government kindergartens in Qatar. The questionnaire included 38 close-ended questions grouped into nine categories, addressing different aspects of knowledge and practices related to early childhood oral health. The questionnaire was constructed in English, before being translated into Arabic, which is the local language in Qatar. The questionnaire instrument was pre-tested on mothers with demographic characteristics matching the main population. These participants were not included in the main study. The questionnaire study was associated with a clinical epidemiological study to assess dental caries and enamel defects of the sampled children. The dmft caries index (decayed, missing and filled teeth) was used for that purpose according to the World Health Organization criteria. For the questionnaire administered to mothers with clinical survey variables, a binary logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the associations between the measures of oral health status (dmft, Dental index) and mothers’ oral health knowledge and practices. A total of 48% mothers thought that children should have their teeth brushed from the age of three years and 42% chose younger than two years as a starting age for brushing. More than half (54%) of the mothers thought that children should not have their teeth flossed. In general, no significant statistical association was found between dmft and any other variables, except for whether or not the child had visited the dentist. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the association between the measures of oral health status (dmft, DI) and mothers’ oral health knowledge and practices. After controlling for the other independent variables included in this model, the test of the model was not statistically significant, which indicated that none of the variables represent a significant risk for occurrence of caries. The only exception was whether or not the child had visited the dentist (odds ratio = 2.51, 95% confidence interval 1.091–5.774). Despite the existence of good knowledge of oral health care, there were deficiencies in the oral health care provided to children. This may reflect that seeking dental care is either not very important or it is challenging to obtain access to a child-friendly dentist in the public health system in Qatar. The results of this study suggest that there is a need for an ...

Prevalence of parents willingness to take up fluoride treatment for their children, the gender differences and common age of acceptance - A retrospective study

“…Dental preventive therapy should start early in a child's life. The need for early intervention is to reduce or eliminate oral diseases and the lack of awareness among children about oral health, mandate the involvement of parents in the prevention process (Alkhtib and Morawala, 2018;Mamat, 2018). Studies have reported that low parental knowledge and a poor attitude towards oral health are associated with an experience of high caries in young children (Blinkhorn, 1989;Watson, 1999;Gussy et al, 2008).…”

Awareness of Childhood Caries Among Parents in Andhra Pradesh

“…Several studies have found that good knowledge and attitude toward oral health does not necessarily produce good practices. (Alkhtib and Morawala, 2018)from this study, it is clear that awareness regarding bad practices is abundant which is indicated by the low prevalence, i.e. 18.5% approximately.…”

“…In addition, a general low score was found in the knowledge, attitude, and good practices in infant oral health care such as timing for a first dental visit, the ideal time to start the use of fluoridated toothpaste, need to restore deciduous teeth, ill-effects of the night time, frequent and prolonged breast/bottle feeding, harm caused by swallowing of toothpaste. (Alkhubaizi et al, 2018;Mamat, 2018) The role of bacteria in the causation of dental caries was not acknowledged by the majority of the parents which was reflected by the prevalent practice of sharing utensils and biting food into small pieces before feeding in this study. This is in accordance with studies by Mani et al and(naidu, nunn andIrwin, 2015).…”

Early Childhood Caries – literature review on risk factors, prevalence and prevention

“…Awareness concerning children's dental health has been evaluated inseveral studies which show a limited knowledge of caries preventive measures among parents [3,[35][36][37][38]. According to El Karmi et al, only 16% of expectant mothers taking part in the survey thought that primary teeth need brushing [38].…”

“…According to El Karmi et al, only 16% of expectant mothers taking part in the survey thought that primary teeth need brushing [38]. Another study reported 48% of mothers thought that tooth brushing should start from the age of three [36]. Dagon et al state that 72% of mothers did not know the right fluoride concentration adequate to their child's age [37].…”