Oral Hygiene Practices, Knowledge, and Self-Reported Dental and Gingival Problems with Rural-Urban Disparities among Primary School children in Lilongwe, Malawi

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dc.contributor.author Mlenga, F.
dc.contributor.author Mumghamba, E. G.
dc.date.accessioned 2023-04-21T12:28:12Z
dc.date.available 2023-04-21T12:28:12Z
dc.date.issued 2021-03-09
dc.identifier.citation Mlenga, F., & Mumghamba, E. G. (2021). Oral hygiene practices, knowledge, and self-reported dental and gingival problems with rural-urban disparities among primary school children in Lilongwe, Malawi. International Journal of Dentistry, 2021, 1-10. en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://dspace.muhas.ac.tz:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/3249
dc.description.abstract Aim. To determine oral hygiene practices, knowledge, and experience of dental caries and gingival problems among urban and rural primary schoolchildren in Lilongwe District, Malawi. Methodology. (is was an analytical and quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study. Four urban and four rural primary schools were conveniently sampled. Pupils aged 11–14 years (n � 409) were recruited using self-administered structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS program v20.0. Results. Out of 409 pupils, most of them had knowledge that dental caries is caused by consumption of sugary foodstuffs (91.4%), toothache is a symptom of dental caries (77.6%), gingivitis is caused by ineffective tooth brushing (92.7%), and gingival bleeding is a sign of gingivitis (85.3%). Most pupils experienced toothache (30.8%); many of them had parents with secondary education and above (35.0%) compared to those with primary education (23.5%). 24.4% experienced gingival bleeding with higher percentages from urban (30.1%) than rural (18.5%) schools. Plastic toothbrush users (95%) overshadowed chewing stick users (24.9%). (e use of chewing stick was significantly higher in rural (49%) than in urban (1.9%) schools. Likewise, tooth brushing before bed was significantly higher in rural (33%) than in urban (17.2%) pupils. (e use of toothpaste during tooth brushing was significantly higher among urban (91.9%) than among rural (64%) pupils. (e prevalence of tongue cleaning was 70.2%, and the differences were significantly higher among pupils who had parents with secondary and higher education in urban schools and among pupils aged 11–12 years in comparison with their counterparts. Conclusions. Most pupils reported cleaning their teeth regularly, mostly using plastic toothbrush rather than chewing stick, using toothpaste, and having adequate knowledge about dental caries and gingival disease, and a quarter of them had suffered from these diseases with evidence of rural-urban disparities. Integration of oral health in school health promotion program and further research on its impact on oral health status are recommended. en_US
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher International Journal of Dentistry en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries International Journal of Dentistry;2021, 1-10.
dc.subject Oral Hygiene Practices en_US
dc.subject Self-Reported Dental en_US
dc.subject Gingival Problems en_US
dc.subject Rural-Urban Disparities en_US
dc.subject Primary School children en_US
dc.subject Lilongwe en_US
dc.subject Malawi en_US
dc.title Oral Hygiene Practices, Knowledge, and Self-Reported Dental and Gingival Problems with Rural-Urban Disparities among Primary School children in Lilongwe, Malawi en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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