knowledge, Attitude, and Preventive Oral and Dental Self-Care Behaviors among Dentistry and Medical Students of Qom University of Medical Sciences, (Iran

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Oral health is a key component of general health and quality of life. The purpose of this study was to determine knowledge, attitude, and performance of medical and dentistry students of Qom University of Medical Sciences in the fie ld of oral and dental health. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, a questionnaire was completed by 152 dentistry and medical students of Qom University of Medical Sciences. Using the questionnaire, information on age, gender, knowledge, attitude, and performance of medical and dentistry students of Qom University of Medical Sciences in oral and dental health, we re collected. Data were analyzed using Chi-square and logistic regression. The significance level was considered to be less than 0.05. Results: In this study, the mean age of the students was 20.98±2.03, and 50% of them were male. Overall, 45.4% of the students, had high knowledge and 51.3% had positive attitude towards preventive oral and dental care. In multivariate logistic regression model, there was a significant relationship between being male and lower level of knowledge, and there was a significant relationship between being female and studying Dentistry with positive attitude. The Possibility of regular use of dental floss was more reported among female students and students with high knowledge. Also, high knowledge had significant association with dental check-up in recent past year. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the status of knowledge, attitudes, and self-care performance of students about preventive oral and dental care, is at average level, and therefore, designing coherent programs for improving these variables, is necessary to promote personal and professional performance in preventive oral and dental care.