Oral Health-Related Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours of Elementary School Teachers

Abstract

Background: elementary schoolteachers play a central role in shaping their students’ beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours related to health and oral hygiene. This study was designed to evaluate Turkish schoolteachers’ levels of oral health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. Methods: A cross-sectional survey-based study was conducted among elementary schoolteachers in Istanbul using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of 36 multiple-choice items categorised into six sections, and the participants were recruited using convenience sampling. (3) Results: A total of 385 elementary schoolteachers participated in this study. The majority were female (62.2%), qualified with a licensure degree (81.3%) and working in public schools (86.5%). Female gender and greater work experience were found to be promoters for oral health knowledge and positive attitudes. The correlation between their perceived knowledge and actual knowledge was very weak, thus suggesting that the teachers are inclined to overestimate their knowledge. Conclusions: The Turkish elementary schoolteachers showed satisfactory oral health knowledge and attitudes toward oral health education. The teachers’ knowledge about dental trauma management was inadequate, necessitating urgent educational interventions, especially for physical education teachers, who are at the greatest risk of encountering such events during their work. The oral hygiene behaviours were not associated with teachers’ oral health knowledge, attitudes, or practice, thus requiring further investigation.

Self-Reported Basic Oral Health Knowledge of Primary School Students and Teachers in Rural Areas of Saudi Arabia

“…This could be because school teachers are likely to overestimate their oral health expertise due to their social position as mentors to their students. 35 Our finding is correlated with the study reported by Vozza et al They noted that a school-based program is more effective in content learning for children when knowledge acquisition is followed by applying and verifying theoretical and practical skills in oral health. 36 In spite of several reported studies, there is currently inadequate data to support the effectiveness of primary school-based behavioral therapies for caries prevention.…”

Online oral health information seeking experience and knowledge, attitudes and practices of oral health among iranian medical students: an online survey

“…Considering all the above and regarding the similar evidence from different countries including India [20][21][22][23], Saudi Arabia [24,25], Egypt [26], Turkey [27], Pakistan [17], China [16,18] have indicated that in spite of differences among the level of knowledge, attitude and practice in the area of oral and dental health and despite the vast variety in the mechanism, method and rate of oral health information seeking behavior, effective interventions especially educational ones need to be designed to improve the oral health KAP. So it is recommended to design applied educational interventions using the potentiality of the internet and social media to increase the familiarity of the community with the new methods of seeking information and the pros and cons of applying the internet for this purpose.…”

A Household-Based Survey to Understand Factors Influencing Awareness, Attitudes and Knowledge towards Wolbachia-Aedes Technology

“…However, the majority of those with high perceived knowledge had only "Mid-level" general knowledge (GK) score, suggesting that participants may overestimate their knowledge in the topic or may have some misconceptions. Weak correlation or lack of correlation between perceived knowledge and actual knowledge is also observed in several studies [31][32][33], where participants overestimate their knowledge in the topic. Only 22.2% of those who were aware of the project obtained a high GK score, suggesting that more communication efforts need to focus on bridging knowledge gap in the population.…”