Primary care nurses’ awareness of and willingness to perform children’s oral health care

BMC Oral Health

Jorma I Virtanen²  Reza Yazdani³  Simin Z Mohebbi³  Sepideh Rabiei¹ 

[1] Department of Community Dentistry, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 5281, 90014 Oulu, Finland;Oral and Maxillofacial Department, Oulu University Hospital, P.O. Box 21, 90029 Oulu, Finland;Department of Oral Public Health, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 41, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland

关键词: Primary care providers;    Oral health;    Nurses;    Knowledge;    Children;    Attitude;   

Others  :  1228622
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6831-14-26

 received in 2013-09-09, accepted in 2014-03-21,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

The majority of young children receive no early dental examination while attending primary health care for routine check-ups. Our aim was to study primary care nurses’ knowledge of oral health care (OHC) and their attitudes toward delivering OHC, as well as to assess their willingness to obtain OHC information.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional survey of all primary-care nurses working in the public health centres of Tehran city. An anonymous self-administered questionnaire queried their knowledge in paediatric-, general and medicine-related areas of dentistry, providing knowledge scores for three domains. The nurses’ attitudes toward OHC and their willingness to obtain OHC information underwent evaluation with statements utilizing a five-point Likert scale. Altogether 680 nurses took part in the survey. The Chi-square test, t-test, one-way ANOVA and logistic regression model served for statistical analyses.

Result

The mean score for the paediatric dentistry domain (3.6, SD: 1.5) was lower than for the medical (4.4, SD: 2.3) and dental domains (5.8, SD: 1.5). Obtaining higher scores in the paediatric (OR = 1.2) and dental (OR = 1.3) domains, and a greater willingness to receive OHC information (OR = 5.3), were associated with a positive attitude toward OHC. Nurses with a lower education (OR = 1.9) and better oral health behaviour (OR = 1.1) as well as those working in a non-affluent region (OR = 1.6) had a more positive attitude toward OHC.

Conclusion

Primary care nurses’ low level of knowledge in OHC and their positive attitude and willingness to obtain more information point to the need for appropriate OHC training and encouragement for the nurses to promote oral health and prevent dental diseases.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Rabiei et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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