Oral health related knowledge, attitude and practices among the primary health care workers of a district in India

AIM: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices of the primary health care workers in our country. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data was gathered by means of a closed-ended questionnaire form. A total of 30 primary health centers (PHCs) and 60 subcenters (SCs) were included in the study. Frequency distribution was used together with Chi-square tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) in this study. A P value of < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Only 40% of the primary health care workers knew that dental caries is multifactorial, majority of them could not identify the symptoms of gum diseases, a meager number of the primary health care workers (28%) knew about the oral health aspects of a pregnant lady, and with the exception of doctors, the other health care workers were not sure of the etiology of oral cancer. CONCLUSION: About one-tenth of the primary care workers had high knowledge regarding oral health, only one-tenth of them had highly favorable oral health attitudes, and 9% of them had highly favorable oral health practices.