Oral Health Knowledge and Attitudes of Community Health Workers in East Azerbaijan, Iran

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: Prevention is the key factor in acquiring dental and oral health. Community health workers, as a part of health care networks in Iran, play an important role in delivering primary care and their knowledge and attitude directly affect the population whom they interact with in their service scope. PURPOSE: The aim of this research was to evaluate the knowledge and attitude level of community health workers regarding oral health. MATERIALS AND METHOD: This descriptive analytical study was carried out on 1170 community health workers who were employed in health offices in East Azerbaijan to evaluate their knowledge and attitude level about oral health. Data were acquired through filled out questionnaires and were analyzed by SPSS software. RESULTS: There was no significant statistical relationship between knowledge and gender (p= 0.063), level of education (p= 0.08) and the period spent from the last continuing education course (p= 0.148).However, by increasing age (p= 0.016), work experience (p=0.083) and number of attended continuing education courses (p= 0.023), the knowledge scores were reduced. No statistically significant relationships were found between attitude and any of research variables. CONCLUSION: The level of knowledge and attitude of community health workers in East Azerbaijan regarding oral health was good. There was a reverse relationship between age, work experience, and frequency of participation in continuing education courses and knowledge scores which emphasizes the necessity of continuous training and revising the method of training in education of community health workers and other staffs of health care system.