Oral Hygiene Practices and Oral Health Knowledge among Students in Split, Croatia.

Publisher: MDPI AG Country of Publication: Switzerland NLM ID: 101666525 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 2227-9032 (Print) Linking ISSN: 22279032 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Healthcare (Basel) Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE

Original Publication: Basel, Switzerland : MDPI AG, [2013]-

Background: Knowledge of oral health is a fundamental prerequisite for healthy behavior, allowing individuals to take measures to protect their overall health. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the knowledge of oral health as well as to assess the oral hygiene habits among healthcare and non-healthcare students.
Methods: The study was based on a questionnaire and was conducted among 1088 students. Most of the students, 67.6% were non-healthcare students. Data were processed by Mann-Whitney or Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA test.
Results: The correct median score and interquartile range were 11 (9-13) for all surveyed students, 11 (9-12) for students in non-healthcare programs and 13 (11-14) for students in healthcare programs. Students did not significantly differ in the knowledge of oral health by gender ( p = 0.082) but did differ by age, study program, and year of study ( p ≤ 0.001). Students whose family members work in the field of dental medicine also showed better oral health knowledge ( p ≤ 0.001).
Conclusion: The results showed good oral health knowledge among tested university students. However, it is important to emphasize that students who showed better knowledge more often used additional aids to maintain oral hygiene; therefore, the obtained data underline the importance of students' further education in order to better understand and maintain oral health.

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Keywords: knowledge; oral health; oral hygiene; practice; students

Date Created: 20220225 Latest Revision: 20220301

20240104

PMC8872387

10.3390/healthcare10020406

35207018