Survey of knowledge, attitude and self-care behaviors of oral health among dental students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd in 2019

Background & Aim: Dental students as a community model should have a positive attitude towards oral health, therefore the present study was conducted to investigate the knowledge, attitude and self-care behaviors of oral health among dental students in Yazd. Material and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 198 dental students were randomly selected and completed a valid questionnaire consisting of four sections: demographic characteristics, questions about knowledge, attitude and practice regarding the diagnosis and prevention of caries. Data were analyzed using SPSS23 statistical software and Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: In this study, 79(41.1%) male students and 113(58.9%) female students participated. The mean age of students was 22.47±2.99 years. The mean score of students' knowledge was 30.25±4.91 out of 45 points, the mean score of attitude was 43.27±6.95 out of 56 points. There was a statistically significant relationship between the mean of knowledge score with age and educational level and the mean of knowledge and attitude scores with marital status (P-value<0.05). But the mean scores of students' knowledge, and attitude were not statistically significant with their gender, status and place of residence, their parents' occupation (P-value>0.05). Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, students' knowledge, and attitude regarding preventive oral care were moderate. The effect of gender, status and place of residence, parents' occupation on students' knowledge, and attitude was not significant. But in married students, age group and higher education level, the level of knowledge was also higher.