A Study to Assess The Knowledge and Practice Regarding Oral Hygiene among School Age Children in Selected Schools of Waghodia, Vadodara, Gujarat

Abstract

BACKGROUND This study was designed to investigate the Knowledge and practice regarding Oral Hygiene among School age children. Emphasis was put on trying to establish the relationship between gender, education status, No. of children in the family, ordinal position in the family , education of parents, any previous knowledge , source of knowledge. The validity and reliability of research instruments was established and data was collected from 60 children selected from Waghodia taluka using the Purposive Sampling technique. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The aim of this study is to assess the level of knowledge and practice regarding oral hygiene among School Age Children in selected schools of Waghodia. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Descriptive research design was adopted to achieve the goal of the study. The tool consists of two parts: Structure Interview Schedule Questionnaire and Practice Checklist. 60 samples were collected from selected schools of Waghodia by Purposive Sampling technique. RESULTS The finding shows that the Pre-test knowledge and Practice score of School Age Children regarding oral hygiene with that selected demographical variables of Gender (28.56), Educational Status (80.93), Ordinal Position in the family(24.84), Education of Parents(χ2=28.09), any previous regarding oral hygiene(6.22),and Source of Knowledge(29.38 ) were found to be significant at 0.05 level, Thus it can be interpreted that there is a significant association between knowledge and practice with selected demographic variables such as gender, educational status , ordinal position in the family, education of parents, any previous knowledge regarding oral hygiene and source of knowledge ,only no. Of children in the family (12.10) was not significant at 0.05 level. Thus it can be interpreted that there is a no significant association between knowledge and practice of school age children with their no. of children in the family. CONCLUSION The following conclusion can be drawn from the study findings, which are supported by evidence from the other literature. The School Age Children are having adequate Knowledge and Practice regarding oral hygiene. The self administered Structured Interview Schedule Questionnaire has shown remarkable association between socio demographical variables and their knowledge. Using the statistical formula we have computed the association between the demographic variables and their knowledge.