The correlation between oral health knowledge & attitude towards practice of caretakers in day-care centres.
Modernization has made young children to spend most of their time in day-care centres as their mothers are working outside the home. Hence, the role of caretaker has become more important in the daily diet and oral health care of children. The objective of this study is to assess the oral health k...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
Kulliyyah (Faculty) of Medicine, International Islamic University Malaysia
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/69785/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/69785/7/69785_The%20correlation%20between%20oral%20health_SCOPUS.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/69785/8/69785_The%20correlation%20between%20oral%20health.pdf |
| Summary: | Modernization has made young children to spend most of their time in day-care centres as their mothers
are working outside the home. Hence, the role of caretaker has become more important in the daily diet
and oral health care of children. The objective of this study is to assess the oral health knowledge, attitude
and practice among caretakers in day-care centres. A cross-sectional study among 54 caretakers aged 18
and above was conducted in Kuantan. The data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire
addressing aspects of oral health knowledge, attitude and practice of caretakers. The results were
analyzed by descriptive and Spearman correlation coefficient tests. The participants were mainly Malay
ladies and 16.7% had university education. The knowledge of sugary food causing dental caries was found
good for all caretakers; however, 48.1% of them do not know the important about filling the teeth of their
children. Preliminary analysis was performed and followed by Spearman correlation coefficient analysis.
Correlation between attitude and practice was weak (rho=0.29, p<0.05), and between knowledge and
practice (rho=0.21, p>0.05). The caretakers had good oral health knowledge but it did not reflect in their
attitude and practices. The action must be based on knowledge, and that knowledge must produce action.
As Abu Bakr (R.A) said, “without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile.” The
Arabic term ‘ilm translates to knowledge, but the word has a broader definition than its English
counterpart. ‘Ilm encompasses theory, action, and education whereas in English, knowledge is defined as
merely the awareness of facts, truths, and principles. |
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