Hubei-MOST KLOS & KLOBM, School & Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University, No. 237 Luoyu Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan, China.
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK.
BMC Oral Health. 2020 Jul 11;20(1):203. doi: 10.1186/s12903-020-01186-4.
Children aged 6-7 years are in the early mixed dentition, which is a period of high prevalence of dental caries and other dental diseases and a critical period for the formation of oral health behaviors. Therefore, good oral hygiene habits of children and oral health knowledge of parents are very important. This study sought to explore the relationship between children's oral health behaviors, parental oral health knowledge, parental choices of pit and fissure sealants, and parents' education levels based on a large-scale sample size for the first time, and to compare the influences of parental education levels between parents.
Families of the first and second graders of primary schools in Wuhan Hongshan District were included in this study. A total of 8446 questionnaires were collected to obtain comprehensive information on children's oral health behaviors, parents' oral health knowledge and parents' pit and fissure sealants-related choices. The relationship between these outcome variables and parents' education levels were studied using logistic regression analysis and chi-square test.
Parents who reported good educational background had more favorable oral health knowledge than those of other parents, and their children had better oral hygiene behaviors. Four indicators of five measures to children's oral health behaviors were significantly associated with mother's education level (P < 0.05), and three of them were related to father's education level (P ≤ 0.01). Moreover, seven indicators of eight measures to parents' oral health knowledge were significantly related to mother's education level (P < 0.05) and four of them were affected by the father's (P < 0.05). In addition, parents with higher educational attainments paid more attention to the completeness of medical facilities, the environment of dental practice, the distance to treatment sites, and took less concern of children's willingness when choosing the pit and fissure sealants sites.
In families with children at the early mixed dentition stage, parents with higher education levels tend to have better oral health knowledge and more oral health care needs, such as pit and fissure sealants. In addition, children of parents who have better educated parents tend to perform better oral hygiene practices.
6-7 岁的儿童正处于混合牙列早期，这是龋齿和其他口腔疾病高发的时期，也是口腔健康行为形成的关键时期。因此，儿童良好的口腔卫生习惯和家长的口腔健康知识非常重要。本研究首次基于大规模样本量，探讨了儿童口腔健康行为、家长口腔健康知识、家长窝沟封闭剂选择与父母受教育程度之间的关系，并比较了父母受教育程度对父母的影响。
本研究纳入了武汉市洪山区小学一、二年级学生的家庭。共收集了 8446 份问卷，以获取儿童口腔健康行为、家长口腔健康知识和家长窝沟封闭剂相关选择的综合信息。使用逻辑回归分析和卡方检验研究这些结果变量与父母受教育程度之间的关系。
报告良好教育背景的父母比其他父母拥有更有利的口腔健康知识，其子女也有更好的口腔卫生行为。儿童口腔健康行为的五个措施中的四个指标与母亲的教育水平显著相关（P<0.05），其中三个与父亲的教育水平相关（P≤0.01）。此外，父母口腔健康知识的八项措施中的七个指标与母亲的教育水平显著相关（P<0.05），其中四个与父亲的教育水平相关（P<0.05）。此外，教育程度较高的父母更关注医疗机构的完整性、牙科实践环境、治疗地点的距离，并在选择窝沟封闭剂地点时较少关注孩子的意愿。
在有混合牙列早期儿童的家庭中，受教育程度较高的父母往往具有更好的口腔健康知识和更多的口腔保健需求，例如窝沟封闭剂。此外，受教育程度较高的父母的孩子往往具有更好的口腔卫生习惯。
