Knowledge of Oral Prophylaxis and Dental Check-up Amongst Primary School Teachers in Lagos State: An Urban-rural Comparative Study: Dental Public Health

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Oral health knowledge of school teachers will influence the success of the strategy of the National Oral Health Policy at the Community level. Aim: This study aimed to assess and compare the oral health knowledge in Urban and Rural areas of Lagos State. Methodology: A cross-sectional study, using a multistage sampling technique to select 200 primary school teachers in both urban and rural areas. A pretested, self-administered questionnaire was used. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive and crude odd ratio were used, and p-value ⩽0.05 is significant. Result: The mean age of the respondent is 39±10.92 and 47±7.56 for rural and urban areas respectively. More teachers were females in rural and urban areas. The ever-married were majority in both rural and urban areas. Majority had National Certificate of Education in rural and urban areas.  Urban teachers [55%] had adequate oral health knowledge and 63% in the rural had inadequate oral health knowledge.  Crude odd ratio revealed a significant association between geographical location and oral health knowledge [p=0.0102; OR=2.081]; marital status [p=0.0204; OR=0.26] and teaching experience [p=0.0442; ≤10years, OR=1.533; ≤15years, OR=2.130 and ˃16years, OR=3.179].  Conclusion: Primary school teachers in urban area showed adequate oral health knowledge than their counterparts in the rural area of Lagos State