RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORAL HEALTH BEHAVIOURS AND DENTAL PROBLEMS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ANAMBRA STATE NIGERIA

EDUCATION

Oral health is an essential component of general health and quality of life. Oral health status is significantly related to oral health behavior. Oral health is affected by a person's oral health behaviors and oral habits, including tooth brushing, use of dental floss, and regular dental visits. Hence, behavior modification, therefore, may have a positive effect and produce improvement in oral health. This study was therefore designed to ascertain the relationship of oral health behaviors and dental problems among secondary school students in Anambra State. To guide the study, nine research questions were raised and answered and five hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. A descriptive survey design was used for this study. The area of study for this research was Anambra State. The sample size for the study comprised 500 secondary school students in Anambra State. The data required for this study were collected with two structured test instrument which was designed by the researcher and titled “Oral Health Behavior Questionnaire (OHBQ)” and “Dental Problem Questionnaire (DPQ)”. The reliability analysis yielded alpha value of .716 for oral hygiene behaviors; .620 for oral dietary behaviors; .756 for oral addictive behaviors and .713 for dental problems. Research questions were answered with mean, percentage and chi square, and hypotheses were tested using Chi square, T-test and Pearson’s correlation at 0.05 level of significance. The findings show among others that there is no significant relationship between the oral health behaviors and dental problems among secondary school students in Anambra State. Furthermore, Male and female secondary school students in Anambra State were not significantly different in their oral health behaviors. Also, the proportions of male and female secondary school students in Anambra State experiencing different types of dental problems were not significantly different. Based on the findings and conclusion, recommendations among others was made that; Secondary school students need to be educated and sensitized on the importance of use of dental floss and how to use it, and that Health education on healthy feeding should be disseminated to the students as well as their parents.

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