title: Oral health knowledge, attitudes and preventive practices of third grade school children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of study was to investigate the oral health knowledge, attitudes and preventive practices of third grade school children in Harris County.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study, oral health knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices of the children were investigated by means of a self-administered, bilingual questionnaire. Three calibrated examiners collected data on dental caries, periodontitis, and fluorosis of 1,031 school children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most children reported "fairly adequate" oral hygiene habits (58%) and oral health knowledge (48%), and "adequate" dietary patterns (59%). Children with inadequate oral health knowledge were twice as likely to have caries than children with adequate knowledge (OR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.29, 3.28). The mean combined DMFT/dft scores of children with inadequate knowledge were significantly higher than the mean for children with adequate knowledge (t = 2.6, P = 0.009).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results indicate a need to improve oral health knowledge and preventive practices among the study population. Because of the cross-sectional nature of the study, it is not possible to illustrate a cause-effect relationship between oral health education and prevalence of caries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Public Health and Dental Hygiene, University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center, USA.
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Narendran
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Williamson
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004032:Diet; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006267:Health Education, Dental; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires