The level of oral health knowledge and attitudes of Maltese parents toward the oral health of their children aged between 3 to 10 years

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the oral health knowledge and attitudes of Maltese parents hailing from various socioeconomic backgrounds about the dental health of their children aged between 3 to 10 years. Given that supervision of the children is essential for this age group, this study might reflect the impact of parents on their children's oral health behaviours and attitudes. Moreover, this study wanted to analyse any differences in knowledge and attitudes between fathers and mothers. Furthermore, the findings observed herein may potentially show whether there is a demand for more oral health awareness programmes for parents in Malta. Research question: The research question of this study was ‘In Maltese parents, what is the level of oral health knowledge and attitudes toward the oral health of their children aged between 3 to 10 years?’ Materials & Methods: The study design was a cross-sectional one including both quantitative and qualitative questions. Questionnaires in both Maltese and English were distributed on social media groups specific to parents namely ‘Ommijiet ngħidu kelma flimkien’ and ‘Flimkien Missirijiet Inqumu’ and more generalized groups namely ‘Are You Being Served? (Malta & Gozo) Original’. In these questionnaires, an information letter describing this study was distributed prior to giving consent. Then, if the participants agreed to participate, they were asked to fill in a self-administered structured closed-ended questionnaire in Maltese or English. The questionnaire contained 36 questions which were divided into three sections and included questions about sociodemographic information, questions related to knowledge of their children’s oral health, and actual attitudes and practices of children reported by parents. The responses from the questionnaires were first inputted into an Excel sheet and then submitted to statistics (SPSS). The self-reported answers were subjected to statistical analysis using Chi-Square, considering a p-value of <0.05 as statistically significant. Results and Findings: A total of 134 Maltese parents of both genders (54 fathers and 80 mothers) were recruited by convenience sampling for this study. The majority of parents in this study with an average age of 35-44 years (58.2%) had two children with an average age of 6.7 years and hailed from all regions of the Maltese islands. A number of significant differences were registered in the answers to the questions analysing the knowledge and attitudes of parents (p=<0.05) suggesting that mothers had superior knowledge and attitudes regarding the oral health of their children. Conclusion: This study reported that generally good knowledge and attitudes were present in parents, but mothers were more knowledgeable than fathers in this aspect. There was also a significant difference in educational levels with mothers having a higher educational level (p=<0.001). Moreover, this study showed that the actual knowledge of parents did not always translate into implantation of good oral practise in children. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected. Recommendations and Implications for Practice: The recommendations and implications for practice was that further studies and educational programmes addressed specifically to fathers can be recommended to improve the oral health of their children in this cohort.