Knowledge and practice related to oral health in pregnant women referring to health centers

Background and Pregnant women have increased risk for oral and dental diseases due to their ýphysiological and behavioral changes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the awareness and ýperformance of pregnant women referred to non-affluent health centers in Tehran about oral and ýdental health.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on pregnant women attended to ýý10 health centers in Tehran. A questionnaire was distributed among the participants in which ýquestions were categorized into three categories of demographic information, mother's ýperformance and their knowledge. Finally, the data were analyzed by IBM SPSS software (version 24) using descriptive, correlation and regression tests.
Totally, 166 pregnant women participated in the study. The average ýscore of people was 3.32 out of nine. The results of regression analysis showed ýthat there was a relatively significant relationship between the general knowledge of pregnant ýwomen about oral health and the level of education (P = 0.065) but there was no correlation ýbetween general oral health knowledge and ethnicity, husband education, income and resident ýstatus (p>0.1). While oral health knowledge of pregnant women during pregnancy with education ýý(p=0.07), resident status (p=0.042) and the number of mother roommates (p=0.069) had relatively significant correlation. General Oral health behavior had significant statistical correlation with ýeducation (p=0.03), but there was no correlation with other variables (p>0.1). Oral health behavior ýduring pregnancy was not significantly correlated with any of the variables (P> 0.1).
The ýresults of this study showed that the study population had no acceptable knowledge about oral and ýdental health care and it is necessary to train pregnant women on practical skills of oral health care ýand they will be aware of the importance of maintaining oral health during this period and the ýpotential adverse effects of periodontal diseases.ý