ORAL HEALTH KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES OF PARENTS/ GUARDIANS OF PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN IN MOSHI, TANZANIA

Abstract

Objective: To assess the oral health knowledge, attitudes and practices of the parents/guardians of pre-school children in Moshi, Tanzania.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Moshi Municipality, Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania.

Subjects: Parents/guardians of 372 randomly selected 3-5-year-olds.

Results: There were 174(46.8%) respondents (156 parents and 18 guardians) aged between20 and 78 years (mean age 35±2.0). About 76% of the respondents were in the older agegroup (over 30 years), 79.9% were married, 63.2% had primary education and 79.9%were either professionals, farmers, skilled technical workers or in business. There weresugar moments reported by the parents/guardians for children with temperaments.Although oral health knowledge was generally poor, more parents/guardians withsecondary education showed relatively better dental knowledge than those with primaryeducation (p<0.05). More than 75% of the parents/guardians gave positive responses inregard to maintaining teeth for life for themselves and for their children. A moderatenumber of respondents 75(43.1%) reported supervising their children during toothbrushing. However, majority (92%) said that their children brushed less than twicea day. Most of the parents/guardians (63.8%) reported no detrimental habits that canlead to functional traits of malocclusion in their children.

Conclusion: Some parents/guardians practiced sugar moments on their childrenwhich were not significantly associated with early childhood caries. The oral hygieneknowledge and practices were inadequate. Most of the respondents were positiveabout the need to conserve natural teeth for themselves and for their children.