Journal of Oral Hygiene & Health
Open Access

Abstract

Aim: The aims of this study were to assess the differences in oral health attitude and behavior among Health Sciences Center (HSC) students in four faculties and to compare oral health attitude and behavior among basic sciences, preclinical and clinical students (educational level), including a gender-based comparison. Materials & Methods: The Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioral Inventory (HU-DBI) questionnaire consisted of 20 dichotomous questions. A mass email invitation was sent to all registered students via the Qualtrics survey system. Mann-Whitney U tests and chi-square tests were utilized. A factor analysis test was used to cluster certain questions in groups. The significance level was set to p<0.05. Results: The mean scores of HU-DBI were: 5.4 Medicine, 5.7 Dentistry, 4.7 Pharmacy and 4.5 Allied Health. The data were further divided into basic sciences, pre-clinical and clinical educational levels. The mean scores of the HU-DBI based on the level of education were 5.3, 5.6 and 5.7 for the basic sciences, pre-clinical and clinical groups, respectively. Conclusion: Students in advanced years of their education and female students exhibited better oral health behavior and attitudes. Recommendations are made to emphasize dental education and early exposure to dental health.

Biography

Dena Ali has completed two years of Advance General Dentistry training at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine in New York, USA. She has received her MA degree from Columbia University in May 2011 and Fellowship in General Dentistry. In addition, she is also a Diplomate of American Board of General Dentistry. She has joined Kuwait University Faculty of Dentistry as a full-time Assistant Professor at the Restorative Sciences Department in July 2012.

Email: DALi5@HSC.edu.kw