Socio-Economic Statues and Oral Health Behaviours in a Sample of Iranian Students

Aim: Oral health is one of the most important parts of public health which significantly affects on quality of life. The purpose of this study is to assess the socio-economic statues as well as oral health behaviors among a sample of Iranian students studying in elementary level. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study which was conducted from April 2012 to November 2012. Data obtained from a face-to-face interviews with students studying in elementary schools of Chahbahar, Iran. Considering inclusion criteria, 300 eligible students were selected through a two - stage random cluster sampling. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics using SPSS version 11.5. Finding: Totally 300 students who studying in grade four or five of elementary schools took part in the study. The mean age of subjects was (11± 2.81). Of all students, 11/7% (n = 35) never brush their teeth, 18% (n=54) never floss and 20% (n= 62) never used mouth wash. Furthermore, 94 students (31%) of students had no dental visits regularly. As the results showed, there were significant relationship between lower parents’ educational level (P=0.02), not to access to dental caries services (P=0.04) and lower income (P=0.03) and reasons for not doing oral health behaviour. Conclusion: According the results of this study the students who were in lower socio economic levels, doing less dental healthy behaviors.

Keywords:

Oral healthy behavior , Socio-economic , Elementary students , Cross sectional study , Iran