Evaluation of oral health awareness of secondary school teachers

Abstract

Background: Teachers play key roles in the educational system, and if well trained and motivated on oral health, they may be able to impart this knowledge to their pupils. The aim of this study was to evaluate the oral health awareness of secondary school teachers. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted amongst 120 teachers in eight secondary schools in Lagos State using a self-administered questionnaire. Information obtained included sociodemographic data and oral health knowledge, attitude and practices of the respondents. Data entry and analysis were done using the SPSS version 20. Confidence interval for statistical tests was set at 95% at P < 0.05. Results: Response rate was 100%. The majority of the teachers in the eight schools obtained an oral health knowledge score of 58.33%, which was fair. Only 27.5% of teachers in the sampled schools had a positive attitude towards oral health while 72.5% had a negative attitude. The oral health practices of 26% of the teachers was poor, 63.5% had fair oral health practices while 26.0% of the teachers had good oral health practices. Conclusion: Overall, the oral health knowledge and practice was fair among the school teachers and majority had a negative attitude towards oral health. With further education, they should be able to serve as agents of oral health education in schools.

Keywords

• Attitude
• knowledge
• practice
• schools
• teachers