Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul 11;20(1):203.
doi: 10.1186/s12903-020-01186-4.

Are parents' education levels associated with either their oral health knowledge or their children's oral health behaviors? A survey of 8446 families in Wuhan

Liangwen Chen  1 , Jialan Hong  2 , Dian Xiong  3 , Luyi Zhang  4 , Yuhong Li  1 , Shengfu Huang  5 , Fang Hua  6   7
Affiliations

Are parents' education levels associated with either their oral health knowledge or their children's oral health behaviors? A survey of 8446 families in Wuhan

Liangwen Chen et al. BMC Oral Health. .

Abstract

Background: 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.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusions: 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.

Keywords: Education level; Mixed dentition; Oral health behavior; Oral health knowledge; Pit and fissure sealants.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distribution of the determinants that will be considered by mothers (a) and fathers (b) when choosing the PFS site
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Quan JK, Wang XZ, Sun XY, Yuan C, Liu XN, Wang X, Feng XP, Tai BJ, Hu Y, Lin HC, et al. Permanent teeth caries status of 12- to 15-year-olds in China: findings from the 4th National Oral Health Survey. Chin J Dent Res. 2018;21(3):181–193. - PubMed
    1. Ahiko N, Baba Y, Tsuji M, Horikawa R, Moriyama K. Investigation of maxillofacial morphology and oral characteristics with turner syndrome and early mixed dentition. Congenit Anom (Kyoto) 2019;59(1):11–17. doi: 10.1111/cga.12284. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kaminska A, Szalewski L, Batkowska J, Wallner J, Wallner E, Szabelska A, Borowicz J. The dependence of dental caries on oral hygiene habits in preschool children from urban and rural areas in Poland. Ann Agric Environ Med. 2016;23(4):660–665. doi: 10.5604/12321966.1226863. - DOI - PubMed
    1. De David SC, Mario TG, De Freitas GC, Kantorski KZ, Wikesjo UME, Moreira CHC. Correlation between plaque control and gingival health using short and extended oral hygiene intervals. Clin Oral Investig. 2018;22(7):2593–2597. doi: 10.1007/s00784-018-2358-5. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kisely S. No mental Health without Oral Health. Can J Psychiatr. 2016;61(5):277–282. doi: 10.1177/0706743716632523. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Substances