고령화지역 고등학생들의 구강보건실태 조사

Abstract

It is crucial to address any misperceptions about oral care during adolescence, as this period is when oral health habits are formed. High school students often receive inadequate oral health education due to academic issues, which highlights the need for a more focused approach to oral health education. The objective of this study was to examine the actual conditions of oral health among high school students in the aged region. We examined the connections between their general characteristics, oral health behaviors, subjective oral health conditions, and oral health education, according to the level of oral health knowledge. The subjects comprised 159 students at T High School in the aged Honam region. The data were subjected to frequency analysis, chi-squared analysis, and one-way ANOVA using the statistical program PASW 18.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The results demonstrated that there were significant differences in the general characteristics (age, grades, and class) of students with a high level of oral health knowledge. Furthermore, those who had a high level of oral health knowledge placed the greatest importance on the state of dental health among the subjective oral health conditions. Additionally, those who had a high level of oral health knowledge exhibited positive oral health behaviors, including experiences with visiting a dental clinic and the number of tooth brushing per day. Finally, students demonstrated a high level of knowledge about tooth brushing and dental caries, but a low level of knowledge about auxiliary oral care products. The higher oral health knowledge they had, the more positive oral health condition they had. School education, however, had poor effects on it. The findings raise a need to expand the educational content to broader areas including auxiliary oral care products, scaling, and periodontal diseases beyond tooth brushing and dental caries in order to improve the dental health of high school students and open their eyes to the need for oral health education in school.