Knowledge, attitude and practices towards oral health among secondary school students in Huye district, Rwanda

Abstract

Background: Good oral health knowledge is considered to be crucial for health-related practices and better oral hygiene. Objective: This study was aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices towards oral health among secondary student inHuye district. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 386 students from public secondary schools with advanced level. Boardingsecondary schools were excluded. Stratified Clustering sampling technique was used for selecting study participants. A closedended questionnaire was used for collecting data. Results were found on the basis of percentage and frequency using SPSS 21.0version. Results: The majority of participants, 222 (57.5%) were female and 164 (42.5%) were male. The majority of the participants,168 (43.5%) were between 15-17 years old. Out of the total population of students 1.8% had good knowledge, 56.2% hadaverage knowledge and 42% had poor knowledge about oral health. Moreover, 56.2% had negative and 43.8% had positive oralhealth attitudes and overall practice towards oral hygiene of students showed that 74.6 % had poor practice and 24.4% had goodpractices. Conclusion: Oral hygiene has to be long life practice and oral health education have to be included as part of the school environment. Keywords: Knowledge; attitudes; practice; oral health.