Oral Health Knowledge Primary School Children in Third Al- Rusafa Educational Directorate

Abstract

Objective: oral health knowledge of primary school children, and to find out the relationship between oral health knowledge of primary school children with certain variables (child age, gender, education level of parent, economic status of family).in Third Al- Rusafa Educational Directorate. Methodology: A descriptive study of the oral health knowledge of primary school children. The study was conducted (November 1^st 2020 to June 15^th 2021). The selected was probability sampling (a simple random) of the study setting includes (34) primary schools out of (337) school. The schools selected (10%) of total number of schools. The students were selected using a probability sampling (a systematic random) of 346 students (male-197 and female-149) was selected from (34) school they were in the primary sixth class. The students selected (15%) of the total number of students and they were of age (11 to 13) year. The data was collected for the present study through the self- administration technique by using the questionnaire that designed by the researchers. Validity through a panel of (14) experts and the reliability of the questionnaire is determined through the pilot study. Results: The findings of present study revealed that (56.9%) from the sample were from males, and them were at age 12 years. (50.0%) of the study sample were from low socio-economic class. The knowledge is affected by same demographic characteristic example (age, education level of father, education level of mother, occupation of mother, and socio-economic status). Also, the results showed that students’ knowledge about oral health was middle (50.3%) and poor (45.1 %) respectively. Recommendations:            The study recommended increasing students' awareness through the media about the importance of oral health and how to take care of it, and the Ministry of Education in Iraq should be included instructional programs about oral health and teeth in their curriculum of the schools.