title: Oral health attitudes/behavior and gingival self-care level of Korean dental hygiene students.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine oral health attitudes/behavior and gingival self-care levels of Korean dental hygiene students (n = 271). A questionnaire known as HU-DBI (Korean version) was administered to each class. Higher scores of the HU-DBI indicate better oral health attitudes/behavior. The student's gingival self-care level was scored as excellent (+2), good (+1), questionable (0), poor (-1), or very poor (-2) according to the criteria of the Oral Rating Index (ORI) for youth. The mean score of the HU-DBI was 6.40, and that of the ORI was +0.12. Most samples scored 0 or +1. The mean HU-DBI scores of year-2 and year-3 students (7.06, and 7.61 respectively) were significantly greater than that of year-1 students (5.23) (P<0.001). Twenty-three percent of the students reported a belief that they may eventually require false teeth. Half stated that they put off going to the dentist until they had toothache. Year-1 students were more likely to have this attitude compared to year-3 students. HU-DBI scores were significantly associated with ORI scores (r = 0.315; P<0.001). The differences in the HU-DBI and ORI scores across the level of education were highly significant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Microbiology and Wonkwang Dental Research Institute, Wonkwang University, Korea.
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Komabayashi
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Goo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawamura
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D003729:Dental Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003756:Dental Hygienists / Q000193:education*; D003778:Dentures; D004522:Educational Status; D005882:Gingival Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D009909:Oral Health; D009910:Oral Hygiene; D012648:Self Care; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013336:Students, Health Occupations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires