The influence of primary caregivers of preschool children’s oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices to the children in the four kindergartens of East District of Chiayi City

• Main Authors: SHIH, HSIN-YI, 施欣怡
• Other Authors: CHEN, MIN-LANG
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/5sfyz4

碩士 === 弘光科技大學 === 健康事業管理研究所 === 107 === Background: Researchers have shown that the dental care knowledge, practices, concepts, and attitudes of the primary cargivers of preschool-aged children are the main factors to influence their oral health. The careless attitude unables to assist chldren’s oral hygiene behaviors which enhances the prevalence of dental caries. The improvement in knowledge as a result of oral health has been known to influence and to reduce dental caries and gum diseases. Purpose: This research is to study the influence of primary caregivers of preschool children’s oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices to the children in Chiayi City. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study which was done by using convenience sampling survey method. The main subjects were the main caregivers of kindergarten children aged 2-6 in East District of Chiayi City, 500 self-administered structured questionnaires were issued, and 377 questionnaires were valid. The effective sample response rate was 75%. The data collected have been analyzed for reliability analysis by SPSS statistical software version (25.0), frequency distribution, t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test, Pearson correlation analysis, regression analysis and other statistical methods. Results: The average caregivers' average oral health knowledge score was 83.29, which was significantly different due to education levels and occupations. The “Oral Health Knowledge” of the main caregivers who graduated from colleges and universities was significantly higher than the main caregivers who graduated from high schools, where the “Oral Health Knowledge” of government employees was significantly higher than the main caregivers who work in business and industries. The “Oral Health Attitude” score was 82.90, which wase also found markedly different due to the differences in personal traits of incomes, occupations and education levels. The Oral Health Care Attitude of the family's monthly average total income of 9,001 to 12,000 NTD is significantly higher than average income 3,0001 to 6,0000 NTD and the family's monthly average total income of 12,0001 (and above) NTD. The education level of the university main caregivers’ Oral Health Care Attitude is significantly higher than those who owned the high school degrees. The Oral Health Care Attitude of main caregivers who work in business or government employees is significantly higher than those who work in the industrial fields. The Oral Health Behavior score was 68.67, which was discovered differently due to age, average monthly total income, and occupational and educational levels of personal traits. The 21-30, 31-40 and 41-50 years old main caregivers had substatantially higher oral health cleansing behaviors than those who were under 20 years old. The Oral Health Behaviors of the family's monthly average total income of 60,001 to 90,000 NTD have significantly higher than family average income under 30,000 NTD families. Also, a gigantic difference reflects on education levels (p<0.001). The main caregivers who graduated from colleges, universities and postgraduates had much higher oral hygiene health behavior scores than those who graduated from middle schools. Finally, main caregivers from different occupations have also found obvious differences as well (p<0.05). The main caregivers who work as government employees had higher oral health behaviors than those who work in business, industries or house wives/husbands. Conclusions and Recommendations: This study found that main caregivers who graduated from colleges and universities had significantly higher oral health knowledge than those who graduated from high schools. It is assumed that for people with higher education levels, they may pay more attention to parenting related information and take the initiatives in checking child care behaviors educations through professional books or government websites; therefore, better oral health related information is aquired. The oral health knowledge of main caregivers is the key to young children’s oral health. More and more studies have also shown that enhancing oral health understandings and knowledge enables to improve oral health cleansing behaviors and prevent dental caries from young children, so that the educational level of the main caregivers is one of the major factors which relates to having oral health knowledge. It has also been found that the main caregivers with higher socioeconomic status have better oral health attitudes. It is assumed that the main caregivers with higher socioeconomic status may pay more attention to external appearance and public images, therefore, they have a more positive oral health attitude and will pay more attention to the oral health care of young children. Oral hygiene behaviors of caregivers under the age of 20 are dramastically worse than those of other age groups. It is expected that caregivers of this age group seem to be less matured for child-rearing. Young people may still be groping and learning how to do parenting. Moreover, the main caregivers at this age may focus more on the interaction of having fun with children and pay less attention to take care oral hygiene behaviors of young children, so that the importance of oral health care may have been neglected. An education is needed specifically on oral health care for the primary caregivers at this age. Keywords: Preschool Children, caregivers, Oral Health Knowledge and Attitude, Oral Behavior