Oral Healthcare Information Seeking Behaviour of Pondicherry University Students

Oral health information provides knowledge about oral diseases and develops awareness among the public to implement preventive measures for oral related diseases. Oral health information (OHI) also needs support in terms of public health policy, education, the provision of professional monitoring and therapeutic interventions as and when necessary. In this context, a survey was conducted with the help of questionnaire to know the oral health information seeking behaviour of Pondicherry University students and those results are presented here. The study also assessed the various channels through which these students receive oral health information, identified their oral health information needs, awareness on oral health and preferred modes of delivering oral health information. The purpose of this study is to understand the importance of oral health to students and also to find out the role of Libraries and Information Centres (LICs) in providing the oral health information in Pondicherry. LICs should act as promoting agencies to deliver information to all the needy students. Dissemination of oral healthcare information can be made available in written, spoken or electronic form. The information could be available in the form of books, pamphlets, audio-visual or web-based forms and should be easily accessible to students and the general public.