Parental education and attitude of young adults towards their oral health - A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Socioeconomic factors are linked with the prevalence and burden of oral diseases, particularly in socially marginalized groups and developing countries. The Kerala health model shows the relevance of education and its direct link to attitudes towards health. We studied the relevance of the educational level of parents on the oral health attitude of 17–25-year-olds. The objective was to examine the relationship between parents’ education and oral health attitude, frequency of dental visits, self-rated oral health (SROH), refrainment from dental health care, awareness of follow-up treatment, and effect of female literacy on offspring’s oral health attitudes. College students in Kerala, who were 17-25 year-old were administered questionnaires either web-based via Google forms or paper-and-pencil-based, among a randomly selected sample of college students. The questionnaire sought information on parents' educational levels, SROH, oral care services and awareness regarding oral health. Univariate and bivariate analysis with Chi-squared test was done using SPSS. About 939 students participated in the survey. Among them, 60.7% were females and 39.3% were males and 84.5% were undergraduate and 15.5% were postgraduate students. Frequency of visiting a dentist, SROH, visit to a dentist on recall, and necessary for follow-up and dental visit were associated with father’s and mother’s level of education. Level of education of parents was associated with off-spring’s perception of oral health, and dental visit factors.