Objective: To explore and describe international oral health attitudes/behaviours among final year dental students. Methods: Validated translated versions of the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioural Inventory (HU-DBI) questionnaire were administered to 1,096 final-year dental students in 17 countries. Hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted within the data to detect patterns and groupings. Results: The overall response rate was 72%. The cluster analysis identified two main groups among the countries. Group 1 consisted of twelve countries: one Oceanic (Australia), one Middle-Eastern (Israel), seven European (Northern Ireland, England, Finland, Greece, Germany, Italy, and France) and three Asian (Korea, Thailand and Malaysia) countries. Group 2 consisted of five countries: one South American (Brazil), one European (Belgium) and three Asian (China, Indonesia and Japan) countries. The percentages of 'agree' responses in three HU-DBI questionnaire items were significantly higher in Group 2 than in Group 1. They include: "I worry about the colour of my teeth."; "I have noticed some white sticky deposits on my teeth."; and "I am bothered by the colour of my gums." Conclusion: Grouping the countries into international clusters yielded useful information for dentistry and dental education. © 2006 FDI/World Dental Press.
CITATION STYLE
Komabayashi, T., Kawamura, M., Kim, K. J., Wright, F. A. C., Declerck, D., Freire, M. D. C. M., … Centore, L. S. (2006). The hierarchical cluster analysis of oral health attitudes and behaviour using the Hiroshima University - Dental Behavioural Inventory (HU-DBI) among final year dental students in 17 countries. International Dental Journal, 56(5), 310–316. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1875-595X.2006.tb00106.x
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