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Oral Health Awareness among International Dental and Medical Students at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences: a Cross-Sectional Study J Oral Maxillofac Res 2019;10(4):e3 doi:10.5037/jomr.2019.10403 Abstract | HTML | PDF | XML |
Oral Health Awareness among International Dental and Medical Students at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences: a Cross-Sectional Study
1Department of Preventive and Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Odontology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
2Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Corresponding Author:
Department of Preventive and Pediatric Dentistry
Faculty of Odontology, Medical Academy
Lithuanian University of Health Sciences
Luksos-Daumanto 6, LT-50106, Kaunas
Lithuania
Phone: +370 37 388192
E-mail: sandra.zemgulyte@lsmuni.lt
ABSTRACT
Objectives: To evaluate the self-reported oral health awareness, knowledge and attitude among international dental and medical students at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (Kaunas, Lithuania).
Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among international medical and dental students at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences in 2016 - 2017. The students were invited to participate in the survey before the beginning of a lecture, and they were informed that participation was voluntary and anonymous. In total, 282 students participated in the study, with a response rate of 92.1%. A self-administered English questionnaire consisting of 25 items with options on a Likert scale (agree, neither agree nor disagree and disagree) about oral health problems and their relation to general health status was used to assess a student’s oral health awareness, attitude and knowledge. The level of significance was set at P < 0.05.
Results: Overall good, fair and poor oral health awareness was reported by 71.3%, 24.1% and 4.6%, respectively, of the international dental and medical students (P < 0.05). The mean score of oral health awareness was 18.2 (standard deviation [SD 3.27]), showing overall good oral health awareness. Moreover, the international dental students reported higher oral health awareness than medical students (19.14 [SD 3.25] vs 17.44 [SD 3.1]) (P < 0.001). Comparing this mean score by gender, no statistically significant difference was found (18.33 [SD 3.39] vs 18.05 [SD 3.16]) (P = 0.371).
Conclusions: Overall oral health awareness among international dental and medical students was high. Meanwhile, international dental students reported higher oral health awareness than international medical students.
J Oral Maxillofac Res 2019;10(4):e3
doi: 10.5037/jomr.2019.10403
Accepted for publication: 10 December 2019
Keywords: attitude; awareness; dental students; medical students; oral health.
To cite this article: Oral Health Awareness among International Dental and Medical Students at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences: a Cross-Sectional Study J Oral Maxillofac Res 2019;10(4):e3 URL: http://www.ejomr.org/JOMR/archives/2019/4/e3/v10n4e3ht.htm |
Received: 30 September 2019 | Accepted: 10 December 2019 | Published: 30 December 2019
Copyright: © The Author(s). Published by JOMR under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence, 2019.