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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1405439
This article is part of the Research Topic Community Oral Health: An Integrative Approach to Population-Based Oral Health Enhancement View all 4 articles

Oral Health Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Among Female Public Health and Nutrition University Students in Qatar

Provisionally accepted
Amal Elwadia Amal Elwadia 1Shajitha T. Veettil Shajitha T. Veettil 1Nikki Orquia Nikki Orquia 1Diana A. Hassan Diana A. Hassan 2Paul Amuna Paul Amuna 3Alaa Daud Alaa Daud 4*
  • 1 Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), Doha, Qatar
  • 2 College of Health Sciences, QU Health, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar, Doha, Qatar
  • 3 University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Volta Region, Ghana
  • 4 College of Dental Medicine, QU Health, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: The present study aimed to determine oral health (OH) related knowledge, attitudes, and practices among Public Health (PH) and Nutrition (NU) students at Qatar University.A cross-sectional study was conducted using a pre-validated questionnaire comprising 36 items covering demographics, knowledge, attitudes and perception of oral health practices.Data were analyzed descriptively (means, standard deviations, proportions) and inferentially using statistical tests including t-tests for comparing means, and chi-square tests for examining associations between categorical variables.Results: A total of 112 female undergraduate students participated, including 41 from PH and 71 from NU programs (response rate for both courses= 59.5%). The mean age was 21.8, while 23%were Qataris and 77% non-Qataris. Overall, students demonstrated good knowledge of OH (67.65%), with the PH group scoring higher (70.7%) than NU (65.35%). Knowledge regarding dental plaque was low for both groups (31.0%). Attitudes towards OH varied among participants.Most students reported practicing brushing with fluoridated toothpaste and demonstrated high knowledge regarding the association between poor OH and general health (95%).Overall, PH and NU undergraduate students exhibited relatively good knowledge of OH, however, demonstrated a range of attitudes and practices, including suboptimal ones.. Integration of OH education into the PH and NU curriculum is warranted, along with enhanced interprofessional education to promote self-awareness and improve patient oral health outcomes.

    Keywords: knowledge, Attitude, Public Health, nutrition, Oral Health, interprofessional education, undergraduate

    Received: 22 Mar 2024; Accepted: 17 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Elwadia, Veettil, Orquia, Hassan, Amuna and Daud. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alaa Daud, College of Dental Medicine, QU Health, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.