Attitude and Awareness of Children’s Oral Hygiene Among Mothers in Bandar Abbas, Iran

Today, there has been a growing prevalence of oral diseases among children. Coming to know mothers’ attitude toward and awareness of this issue can shed light on their weaknesses and can help the healthcare staff to address those weaknesses in specific relevant instructions. Therefore, the present research aimed to explore the attitude and awareness of the oral hygiene of children aged 1-6-year-old among mothers who visited Bandar Abbas healthcare centers.  This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 300 mothers of children 1-6-year-old who visited at Bandar Abbas healthcare centers. The sample selection followed a stratified method. The data was collected via a questionnaire comprised of demographic information, awareness (24 items) and attitude (22 items) sections. The exclusion criteria were one’s unwillingness to participant in the study. Data were analyzed via SPSS 19 with the required statistical tests, descriptive statistics, Chi-square, Correlation, One-way ANOVA, and regression.  The mean awareness score of the sample was estimated at 14.76±3.261 while the mean score of attitudes was 92.58±9.522. Statistically significant correlations were found between mother’s awareness and education (P-value=0.001), mother’s occupation (P-value =0.024), father’s occupation (P-value=0.039), socioeconomic status (P-value=0.003) and the number of children (P-value=0.01).  The present findings led to some suggestions to raise the mother’s awareness. These suggestions include holding educational classes and handing out pamphlets and brochures.