Oral health-related knowledge among parents of children with special needs

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the oral health-related knowledge (OHRK) among parents who had children with special needs. Methods: Parents whose children were studying at the Special Child Care Centers in Hong Kong were invited to participate in this cross-sectional study. Questionnaires regarding parents’ social economic status, oral health-related knowledge (OHRK) and their access to obtain relevant information were administrated to 331 participants. The OHRK score ranged from 0 to 12. A higher OHRK score indicated parents had a better understanding of the etiology as well as the prevention strategies for dental caries and periodontal disease. Two sample t tests and ANOVA were used to compare the OHRK scores among parents with different demographic background. Results: Only 16.0% parents had ever attended a professional oral health lecture. The top three approaches for parents to obtain oral health- related information were i) personal experience (59.5%), dental consultation (48.0%), and digital media (43.2%). Less than 40% parents could list three risk factors for dental caries, while 38.1 % parents did not know any of the factors which could lead to periodontal diseases. Nearly 20 % parents thought less sugar intake and use of fluoridated toothpaste could prevent periodontal diseases. Thirty-one (9.4%) parents reported that they had no access to oral health-related information, and those parents had significantly lower OHRK scores than other parents (p=0.018). Besides, parents whose monthly income was lower than HKD 20,000 showed lower OHRK scores than parents with higher income (p=0.029). Conclusions: Oral health education should be provided to parents of special-needs children, especially for parents who lack of access to oral health-related information or have lower social economic status.