Importance of dental problems according to 12- to 16-year-old children.
The willingness to take preventive action is partly determined by the perceived importance of the disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of age, sex, education, and ethnicity to the importance of dental and other health problems by 12- to 16-year-old children. The children (361 boys, 272 girls) attending Dutch schools were asked a series of questions requiring a choice by students as to the more important problems in a given pair of conditions. Conditions included systemic, dental, and psychological problems. Nervousness was the least important problem and hearing disability the most of the nine ranked. Having full dentures was ranked third, bad teeth fifth, and toothache sixth of the nine from least (first) to most important (ninth). Age, sex, education, and ethnicity showed no relationship to importance of problems alone or in aggregate.
Department of Social Dentistry and Dental Health Education, Academic Centre for Dentistry in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
M H
MH
Assink
J G
JG
Verhey
J
J
Hoogstraten
H
H
Goedhart
D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000523:psychology; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000523:psychology; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009018:Morocco / Q000208:ethnology; D009069:Movement Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009426:Netherlands; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors; D013532:Suriname / Q000208:ethnology; D014076:Tooth Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D014421:Turkey / Q000208:ethnology