ORAL HEALTH BELIEFS, KNOWLEDGE, AND BEHAVIORAL ATTITUDES OF EGYPTIAN MOTHERS RESIDENT IN GIZA CITY TOWARDS EARLY CHILDHOOD CARIES

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is the evaluation of the oral health beliefs, knowledge and behavior related to the early childhood caries and the barriers may be facing mothers to obtain proper health care in a sample representing Egyptian mothers living in Giza city. Methods: A cross sectional questionnaire based study was carried out including 440 mothers who do have a child with age of 6 years or younger. This questionnaire was designed to evaluate the participant characteristics and to assess their oral health beliefs and knowledge score (22 questions) and oral health behavior score (10 questions), the scores were calculated by summing the correctly answered questions. And also to determine the possible barriers to obtain proper oral health care (7 questions). Results: The analysis of the data did reveal that 48.4% of the participants answered 16 to 22 questions correctly in the oral health beliefs and knowledge sector, while 49.3% of the participant answered 4-6 questions correctly in the oral health behavior sector, while the answers in the barrier section did reveal that 94.3% of the participants were facing 3 to 7 barriers to obtain oral health care. The oral health beliefs and knowledge showed a statistically significant positive correlation with oral health behavior and the barriers to obtain proper oral health care (P value = 0.000). Conclusion: Although the participants were confronted with some barriers to reach proper oral health care, they revealed an internal proper oral health knowledge associated with accepted oral health behavior.