Beenish Zaffar¹, Samia Khanam², Uzma Zareef³ and Syed Shahzad Ali⁴

ABSTRACT

Objective: The object is to evaluate self-reported oral health attitudes and behavior among DPT students of a government institute of Karachi.  Study Design: Cross sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Department of Physiotherapy, Institute of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, DUHS, Karachi from October to December 2017.

Materials and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study in which 200 students (both male and female) that were studying in a reputed physiotherapy college segregated into preclinical and clinical groups were the part of this study. Hiroshima University Dental Behavioral Inventory (HU-DBI), a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. The data was analyzed through SPSS.20.

Result: 50% (n=100) preclinical and 50% (n=100) clinical students were found out. The questionnaire is used to assess their perception and awareness level about their oral health. Both the groups of students were overall satisfied with the appearance of their teeth [mean value 4.4, 4.8, p-value 0.143 (pre-clinical and clinical respectively)]. the clinical side students scored significantly high whey they asked about using standard sized toothbrush mean 5.5 (1.93) as compare to mean 4.8 (2.23) score of preclinical students, p-value 0.014. interestingly the early academic year students were less worried about visiting a dentist when needed as compare to their senior fellows [mean 5.16 (2.3), 4.02 (2.2), p-value <0.01].  

Conclusion: Our study concluded that at certain levels the Clinical DPT students demonstrated enhanced approaches towards oral healthiness behavior in comparison to preclinical, but still that one obligatory to endorse a widespread oral hygiene sequencer for DPT students to start from the early weeks of their introduction to clinical field as good oral hygiene has good impact on verbal communication.

Key Words: HUDBI (Hiroshima University Dental Behavior Inventory), oral hygiene, physiotherapy

Citation of articles: Zaffar B, Khanam S, Zareef U, Ali SS. Self-Reported Dental Health Attitude and

Practices Among Undergraduate Students of Physiotherapy Program of a Government Institute of Karachi,