Surme Koray, Akman Hayri
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Antalya, TUR.
Cureus. 2023 Aug 30;15(8):e44387. doi: 10.7759/cureus.44387. eCollection 2023 Aug.
Background Dental students are expected to play a critical role in the oral health education of society as future providers of dental care, and their attitudes on this subject have a possible impact on the awareness of patients regarding the importance of preventing oral diseases and improving oral health. This study aimed to evaluate the oral health attitudes and behavior of dental students. Methodology The Turkish version of the Hiroshima University Dental Behavior Inventory (HU-DBI) questionnaire regarding oral health attitudes and behaviors with an additional nine questions was distributed among 250 native Turkish-speaking dental students at the Faculty of Dentistry in Antalya, Turkey. The validity of the nine questions added to the original questionnaire was evaluated by expert opinion and a pretest method. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The Mann-Whitney U test and chi-square test were used for statistical analysis, and the statistical significance level was set at p-values <0.05. Results The mean age of the 250 students in the study was 20.96 ± 1.66 years. In total, 157 (62.8%) students were preclinical (first, second, and third year) dentistry students, and 93 (37.2%) students were clinical (fourth and fifth year) dentistry students. The mean HU-DBI score of all students was 5.95 ± 1.65, and the mean HU-DBI score of clinical students (6.42 ± 1.65) was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than that of preclinical students (5.67 ± 1.59). The mean HU-DBI score of male and female students was 5.63 ± 1.55 and 6.24 ± 1.69, respectively, and this difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The study showed significant improvement in the behavior and attitude regarding the oral health of the clinical dental students compared with the preclinical dental students. Conclusions Among dental students, clinical students and female students had generally better attitudes and behaviors about oral health self-care compared to preclinical students and male students, respectively.
牙科学生作为未来的牙科护理提供者，有望在社会口腔健康教育中发挥关键作用，他们在这一主题上的态度可能会影响患者对预防口腔疾病和改善口腔健康重要性的认识。本研究旨在评估牙科学生的口腔健康态度和行为。方法：一份关于口腔健康态度和行为的广岛大学牙科行为量表（HU-DBI）问卷的土耳其语版本，外加九个问题，分发给土耳其安塔利亚牙科学院250名以土耳其语为母语的牙科学生。通过专家意见和预测试方法评估添加到原始问卷中的九个问题的有效性。采用自填式问卷收集数据。使用曼-惠特尼U检验和卡方检验进行统计分析，统计学显著性水平设定为p值<0.05。结果：本研究中250名学生的平均年龄为20.96±1.66岁。共有157名（62.8%）学生为临床前（一、二、三年级）牙科学生，93名（37.2%）学生为临床（四、五年级）牙科学生。所有学生的平均HU-DBI得分为5.95±1.65，临床学生的平均HU-DBI得分（6.42±1.65）显著（p<0.05）高于临床前学生（5.67±1.59）。男女生的平均HU-DBI得分分别为5.63±1.55和6.24±1.69，差异具有统计学意义（p<0.05）。研究表明，与临床前牙科学生相比，临床牙科学生在口腔健康行为和态度方面有显著改善。结论：在牙科学生中，临床学生和女生分别比临床前学生和男生在口腔健康自我护理方面通常有更好的态度和行为。
