Oral health knowledge and practices among rural government primary school teachers of Mangalore, Karnataka

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the Knowledge and Practice regarding Oral Health among the Rural Government Primary school teachers of Mangalore, Karnataka, India. Materials & Method: A self administered close ended questionnaire consisting of 15 items was distributed among the rural primary school teachers of Mangalore (n= 165). Comparison of knowledge and practice amongst the three age groups was done with Kruskal Wallis test. Comparison of mean scores between the genders was done using Mann-Whitney-U test. Comparison of mean scores across four educational qualification groups was done using Kruskal Wallis test. Results: Significant difference (p< 0.01) was found across the three age groups for the mean practice scores. There was significant difference between the genders with females scoring better for the mean knowledge, practice and the total scores. Conclusions: Oral health knowledge was lacking among the primary school teachers of rural Mangalore, although practices were satisfactory. Oral health education program targeting only the teachers is of utmost importance in the light of the present study results.

Keywords

• school teachers
• rural
• knowledge
• attitude
• practice
• oral health