Evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and performance of elementary school students in Birjand about oral health in 2016

Tooth decay is the most common childhood disease that unlike other infectious diseases, this disease cannot be stopped by antibiotics. The purpose of this study was to determine the evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and performance of elementary school students about oral health in the year 2016 that was designed and implemented in Birjand.

This is a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study, was performed on 390 primary school students in Birjand city in 2016. The subjects were selected by multistage cluster sampling. Data collection tools were a questionnaire with 4 sections: demographic information, knowledge (7 questions), attitude (10 questions) and performance (8 questions). Data were analyzed by SPSS software (Version 18) using independent t-test and ANOVA at the significant level P≤0.05.

Most of the subjects (40.5%) had moderate knowledge. Overall, 2.6% had low attitude, 25.6% had moderate attitude and 71.8% had good attitude. The mean score of the student's performance was 5.48±1.71. Most of the subjects (40.3%) had moderate performance, 31.5% had good performance and 28.2% had low performance. There was a significant statistical relationship between knowledge and attitude, knowledge and performance as well as between attitude and performance (P = 0.001).

Student's attitude towards oral health was good, but their knowledge and performance were at a moderate level, this highlights the need for expanding educational programs to improve the awareness and performance of students and their parents about oral health.