Adil, Abdul Habeeb
(2020)
Assessment of parent's oral health literacy and its association with caries experience of their preschool children attending Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
Oral health literacy (OHL) is an important aspect of oral health and general
well-being of an individual. The OHL includes reading, writing, speaking, listening,
appropriate decision making and numeracy skills. The OHL of parents plays an
important role in the prevention of dental caries among their children. This study aimed
to assess the OHL of parents and its association with the caries experience of their
preschool children. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study involving a systematic
random sampling method, using a sample of 230 parent/preschool child pair attending
the pedodontics clinic, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (Hospital USM), who
participated and met the inclusion criteria. A structured, self-administered OHLI-M
questionnaire including sociodemographic factors was used in this study. A child’s
oral examination was performed to check the dmft (decayed, missing, filled teeth)
status. Statistical analysis was done using descriptive, multivariate regression analysis
and one-way Anova with post-hoc analysis. Among 230 parents, 24 were males and
206 were females with mean age (31.43 ± 5.82) years old, among children, 92 were
boys and 138 were girls with mean age (4.82 ± 1.04) years old participated in this
study. The participants are divided into 3 groups depending upon ethnicity. Most of
the parents were educated with a basic degree, and more parents were employed. The
mean OHL score of the parents was (58±27.39). The inadequate OHL level (43.9%)
of parents was more followed by adequate OHL level (31.3%) and then marginal OHL
level (24.8%). The caries prevalence among the preschool children was 68.7% and
31.3% were caries free. The mean dmft score was (4.27±4.36), where a higher mean
dmft was noted amongst children with 6 years of age followed by 5 years, 4 years and
then 3 years old. The age (p<0.001) and gender (p=0.01) of preschool children was
significant in relation to their dmft score. The multiple regression analysis showed that
after adjustment for sociodemographic factors, parents’ gender (OR = 5.921, 95% CI:
1.355–25.879), parents’ employment status (OR = 0.273, 95% CI: 0.079–0.941),
parents’ OHL score (OR = 16.122, 95% CI: 5.846–44.462), and child age (0.018, 95%
CI: 0.014–0.816) were significantly associated with caries experience in children.
Significant difference was found between dmft score and all the levels of OHL with
p-value < 0.05. Further, significant difference was found between education of parents
and dmft score of preschool children with p-value < 0.05. We conclude that there is a
significant association between the OHL of parents with the caries experience of their
preschool children.
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