Assessment of mother’s knowledge, attitude and Practice towards their children’s dental health care In hossana hospital, haddiya zone, ethiopia

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.