Full Length Research Paper
Alireza Mojtaba, Zahed Shahab,
Abstract
To assess the level of oral health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour among Indian population in relation to location and demographic characteristics. This is a cross-sectional study including urban and rural subgroups of population by random sampling method. The study population consisting of 1760 subjects, of which 929 (52.8%) belong to rural area and 831 (47.2%) to urban area. A self administered structured questionnaire including 23 dichotomous questions pretested through a pilot survey was used in the study. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 15.0. The Student’s T-test and ANOVA test were used as test of significance. Karl Pearson’s correlation test was used to assess the relation of oral health knowledge, attitude and behaviour. The mean score for oral health knowledge, attitude and behaviour were significantly higher in urban population as compared to rural population (p<0.05). A linear relationship was found between knowledge and attitude, knowledge and behaviour, and behaviour and attitude using Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Within the confines of this study it can be concluded that oral health awareness needs to be increased with especial focus on rural population. Health authorities should strengthen the implementation of oral disease prevention and health promotion programmes rather than traditional curative care.