Determinants of oral health practice among adolescence in school incremental programs / Maiyazurah Abdul Aziz

Schools throughout the world play a role in the realization of public health goals. Obviously, the young needs to be instilled with oral health practices for a healthy life. Prior studies have merely addressed the effects of knowledge, attitude, credibility of oral health information and the school health environment, on the oral health practice, particularly among the school adolescences. Hence, this research delves into the influence of potential factors that determines the adolescences’ oral health practice within the context of school incremental programs. The study objectives were 1) to assess the knowledge, attitude, credibility of information, school health environment, and oral health practice; 2) to explore the association between knowledge, attitude, credibility of information and school health environment towards oral health practices; among school adolescences. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Hulu Langat District of Selangor, Malaysia from June to July 2020. A total of 581 form four students of randomly selected governmental secondary schools participated in the study. A structured questionnaire containing five domains namely oral health practice, knowledge, attitude, credibility of information and school health environment adapted measurements were used for the study. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to assess the influence of each domain towards outcome in the study. Overall, all domains present high mean score range between 3.622 - 4.293. Among all domains in the study, attitude presented the highest mean at 4.293(SD 0.422) whereby, school health environment had the lowest mean at 3.622(SD 0.734). Multiple linear regression analysis indicates significant positive linear association between each domain and the oral health practice except knowledge. In conclusion, school incremental program provided in schools play a significant role in educating school adolescence on oral health practice.