Knowledge of pregnant women and healthcare professionals regarding oral health during pregnancy: a data mining analysis.

Abstract

This review reports on the knowledge of pregnant women and healthcare professionals regarding oral health during pregnancy (OHP) through a data mining analysis of the literature. Searches were conducted in 6 electronic databases to select observational and interventional studies that assessed the knowledge of pregnant women and healthcare professionals regarding OHP. The collected data included the year and country of publication, data collection instrument, study type, participants, knowledge level, and factors associated with knowledge. A total of 85 studies published from 1984 to 2023 were included in the analysis, 53 (62.3%) of which were issued in the last decade. The highest number of publications originated from Brazil (n = 24; 28.2%). Questionnaires alone (n = 68; 80.0%) and observational studies (n = 80; 94.1%) were the most frequent instrument and type of study, respectively. In almost half of the studies (n = 42; 49.4%), the participants were pregnant women; other frequently studied groups were dentists (n = 19; 22.3%), gynecologists/obstetricians (n = 14; 16.4%), and midwives (n = 13; 15.3%). In 29 (76.3%) observational studies, the knowledge of pregnant women was poor. Some observational studies of dentists found that they had good (6/19; 31.6%) or moderate (2/19; 10.5%) knowledge of the subject, but more than half (11/19; 57.9%) indicated that dentists had poor knowledge. Most studies reported that gynecologists/obstetricians (10/14; 71.4%) and midwives (n = 10/12; 83.3%) demonstrated poor knowledge. However, 4 of 5 interventional studies (80.0%) found an improvement in the OHP knowledge of pregnant women (3/4; 75.0%) or midwives (1/1; 100.0%) after health education measures. Lower education level, lower income, and infrequent dental visits were associated with less knowledge of OHP among pregnant women. Longer practice duration, ongoing oral health education, and higher academic qualifications were associated with greater knowledge of OHP among professionals. Studies suggest that pregnant women and healthcare professionals have limited knowledge of OHP but demonstrate increased awareness after education interventions.