KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF ORAL HEALTH AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN ATTENDING ANTENATAL CLINIC IN JOS UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

Oral health is important to overall quality of life, self-esteem and social confidence. The oral health of pregnant women has received little attention from researchers in Nigeria despite emerging evidence linking oral health problems with systemic diseases and pregnancy outcome. There is death of information on the knowledge, attitude and practices of pregnant women in Nigeria relating to oral health. This study therefore assessed oral health knowledge and practices of pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic at Jos University Teaching Hospital. This descriptive study involved the administration of pretested semi-structured questionnaire on 361 participants attending the antenatal clinic. They were selected through systemic random sampling process. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. The ages of participants ranged from 18-44 years with a mean of 29.4-15.2years. Most of the participants (97.8%) were married while 67.3% were in the third trimester of their pregnancy. Most 32.5% had secondary education. 70.6% were employed while 29.4% were housewives. Less than half (47.1%) of the participants were aware that dental caries was related to the consumption of refined carbohydrates while 76.2% knew that caries could be prevented. A majority (65.9%) had correct knowledge of the cause of gum diseases especially gingivitis (45%) and periodontitis (20.9%). Only 4.4% were aware that children’s milk teeth developed during pregnancy. A few (25.5%) knew that tetracycline could affect a baby’s teeth when taken during pregnancy. Few participants (15.2%) associated gum disease with premature labour and low birth weight. Many participants (68.4%) claimed that oral disease are preventable while some (21.9%) said they were hereditary. Almost all the participants (99.4%) reportedly used toothbrush and toothpaste to clean their mouth and 62.9% brushed their teeth twice daily. The majority (78.9%) had ever visited a dentist. The mean knowledge score of the participants on a 30-point knowledge scale was 11.9. More than half of the women with good knowledge of oral health had tertiary education (6..4%) (p<0.05). Although 6.6% of the Christian respondents had good knowledge of oral health (p<0.05), the adherents of the Christian respondents had good knowledge of oral health (P<0.05), the adherents if Islam (66.0%) changed their toothbrushes more frequently ( 3 months) than their Christian counterparts (44.1%) (P<0.05). More participants with lower levels of education (59.3%) reportedly changed their toothbrushes more frequently than those with tertiary education (45.2%) (p<0.05). A greater proportion of women with tertiary education (26.8%) compared to their counterparts with lower education (16.7%) had visited a dentist (p<0.05). More participants aged 26 years and above (24.0%) had visited a dentist compared with participants aged <25 years (12.8%) (p<0.05). Although a majority of the participants claimed to be brushing their teeth daily there was low level of utilization of dental services. Health education strategies such as patient education and peer education are considered appropriate for addressing the problem.