Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: Dental health is fundamental and essential part of general
health and well being. Unfortunately many children are affected with dental
caries at an early age. ECC is most common chronic disease in young children
and may develop as soon as teeth erupt. A number of risk factor can be
associated with ECC, which broadly classified in to biological (nutritional
variable, feeding habits and early colonization of carcinogenic micro-organisms)
and social (low educational level, low socio – economic status, lack of
awareness about dental disease) risk factors.
Objective: - the purpose of this study is to asses mothers knowledge, attitude
and practice towards their children’s dental health care in Hossana hospital,
2013 GC.
Methods and materials: - A cross sectional study was conducted to asses KAP
of mothers towards their children dental health care in Hossana hospital.
Convenience sampling technique has been used to include all voluntary
mothers who were visiting Hossana hospital. Data was collected using
structured questionnaires by directly interviewing mothers.
Result: A total of 204 mothers - child pair took part in this study. Only
45.09% of mother had satisfactory knowledge, while 50% of mothers showed
favorable attitudes towards their children’s dental health. In contrast only
7.84% of mothers had good practice to maintain their children’s dental
health. ECC was observed in 57.84% of children with relatively lower
percentage in children belongs to mothers who had better KAP. The mother
with more years of education and more monthly income showed better KAP
towards their children’s dental health.
Conclusion and recommendation: Mothers/ caregivers can play an important
role in preventing oral disease in children and should thus be well educated
about dental health promotion. Educational efforts should focus on educating
mothers with less education and less monthly income.
