The Effect of Mother’s Education Level on Oral Hygiene Awareness and Practices among Pre-School Children of Zulfi Region, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Mother’s attitude towards oral hygiene practices plays a major role in their children's oral health.  The high prevalence of dental caries in Saudi Arabia has been reported in numerous studies. However, none of these studies have evaluated the mother’s' role of awareness and attitude towards oral hygiene.

Objective: To assess the relationship between the education level of mothers and oral hygiene practices 

Methods: A questionnaire in Arabic was designed for this study. The study was carried out for a duration of seven months (August 2019 to February 2020). The participants were 108 mothers of children aged between one to seven years. Questionnaires were distributed and collected manually, the results were tabulated, and statistical analysis was done using one-way ANOVA and Chi-square test of independence.

Results: Significant decline in caries was found with a rise in levels of mother’s education. Oral hygiene practices and frequency of visits to dental clinics were considerably low, and even the groups with mothers having a higher level of education did not have any statistically significant better oral hygiene practices.

Conclusions: An inverse relation between mothers' education level and caries prevalence was evident in this study, but that the overall awareness of oral hygiene practices in the city of Zulfi was low even among the mothers having higher education levels. This needs to be prioritized by the public health authorities to create awareness campaigns with a particular focus on pre-school children's mothers.