Practices towards oral health among caretakers of children below 5 years at Masaka regional referral hospital, Masaka district. Across-sectional study.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51168/insights.v3i4.66Keywords:
Practices towards oral health, Oral health among caretakers of children, Masaka Regional Referral HospitalAbstract
Background:
The aim of the study is to assess the practices towards oral health among caretakers of children below 5 years at Masaka regional referral hospital, Masaka district.
Methodology:
A cross-sectional descriptive research design in nature was used in this study. The group was composed of caretakers of children below 5 years in the Masaka region. A simple random sampling technique was used to select respondents from the source population.
Results:
Most (42%) respondents had attained secondary level of education, (52%) were Catholics, and (74%) were Baganda by tribe. The majority of the respondents (70%) had not yet taken their children to visit a dentist, whereas the minority (2%) had taken their children to visit a dentist after the eruption of the first milk tooth. Most of the respondents (86%) reported that they took their children to visit a dentist only during problems. Most of the respondents (40%) reported that they commenced cleaning of their children’s teeth after 4-6 milk teeth erupted, while the least (10%) reported they commenced cleaning of their children’s teeth soon after the first milk tooth eruption. Almost half of the respondents (48%) used toothbrushes to clean their children’s teeth. Most of the respondents (60%) brushed their children’s teeth once a day, whereas the least (10%) had no particular time to brush their children’s teeth. Half of the respondents (50%) didn’t have a particular time for changing their children’s toothbrushes, whereas the least (2%) changed their children’s toothbrushes once a month.
Conclusion:
Participants possessed very bad practices towards oral health in children below 5 years
Recommendations:
Health workers at Masaka regional referral hospital should sensitise people about the importance of regular dental visits.
References
Kanika S Dhull, B. D. (2018). Knowledge, attitude, and practice of mothers towards infant oral healthcare: International Journal of Clinical Pediatric Dentistry Vol 11(5), 435-439.
https://doi.org/10.5005/jp-journals-10005-1553
Mennatallah Helal, S. A. (2022). Parents' knowledge, attitude, and practices towards oral health of their children with primary dentition: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Medicine in Scientific Research, Volume 5(2), Pg 164- 170. https://doi.org/10.4103/jmisr.jmisr_24_22
Mubeen Nida, N. N. (2015). Mother's knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding dental caries and oral hygiene among children (age 1 to 5 years) in the civil hospital, Karachi. Int. J Dent Oral Health 2(4).
https://doi.org/10.16966/2378-7090.165
Noura Mahmoud, M. K. (2017). Oral health knowledge, attitude, and practices of Sharjah mothers of preschool children, United Arab Emirates. Journal of International Society of Preventive and Community Dentistry Vol. 7(6), pg 308-314. https://doi.org/10.4103/jispcd.JISPCD_310_17
Oral Health. (2022). World Health Organisation.
Sanaa Chala, S. H. (2018). Knowledge, attitude, and self-reported practices towards children's oral health among mothers attending maternal and child units, Sale, Morocco. BMC Public Health 18, 618.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5542-2
Sharays Dhande, R. N. (2021). Mother's knowledge, attitude, and practices towards children's oral health care in Western Maharashtra: A questionnaire study. International Journal of Medical and Biomedical Studies 5(7), 104-110. https://doi.org/10.32553/ijmbs.v5i7.1890
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Mariam Katongole, Stephen Oketcho
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
