title: Comparative Evaluation of Oral Health Knowledge, Practices and Attitude of Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women, and Their Awareness Regarding Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adverse pregnancy outcomes are undesirable events occurring during pregnancy and childbirth in mother or child, such as Preterm Low Birth Weight (PLBW) and preeclampsia. There is growing evidence that periodontitis may be a risk factor for preterm birth even after adjusting for known risk factors.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  1. To determine the knowledge and attitude of pregnant females about oral health. 2. To evaluate the oral hygiene practices of pregnant females. 3. To evaluate their awareness regarding effect of oral health on adverse pregnancy outcomes. 4. To assess whether there was any significant difference from their non pregnant counter parts. 5. To evaluate whether their awareness towards dental treatment had increased after conceiving.
  
  
  METHODS
  200 pregnant and 200 non-pregnant women filled up a validated questionnaire which comprised of questions on personal data, oral hygiene knowledge, attitude, oral hygiene practices and their awareness regarding the correlation of oral health to adverse pregnancy outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analyses were conducted using SPSS for Windows (version 15.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicate no statistically significant differences in the variables assessed in both the groups, indicating that no further knowledge had been imparted to the women after they conceived. 96% women of both groups (p>0.05) had received no knowledge from the gynaecologist regarding the impact of oral health on pregnancy outcomes. 93.9% of pregnant women, and 89.5% of non pregnant women (p>0.05) did not go for routine dental check-ups. Only 3% of pregnant women were aware of oral health having a correlation with adverse pregnancy outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our study, pregnancy did little to change future attitudes to dental care. To provide better oral health care, more knowledge needs to be made available to the pregnant women and the medical community.
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Periodontics, Dr. Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Panjab University , Chandigarh, India .
authors.forename: Shipra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Principal, Professor & Head, Department of Periodontics, Dr. Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Panjab University , Chandigarh, India .
authors.forename: Ashish
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.affiliation: Student Dentist, Westist Dental and Orthodontics Arizona , Chandigarh, India .
authors.forename: Sugandha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohan
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Periodontics, Dr. Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Panjab University , Chandigarh, India .
authors.forename: Nandini
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bhaskar
authors.affiliation: Lecturer, Department of Conservative Dentistry, Dr. Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Panjab University , Chandigarh, India .
authors.forename: Prabhjot Kaur
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Walia
keywords: Birth weight; Labour onset; Newborns; Periodontitis; Preterm birth