Correlation of pharmacy students' knowledge, attitude, and practices with their oral health status in Salem city—A cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the basic sciences also contributes in health maintenance and promotion for the population. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective was to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) among pharmacy students in Salem toward oral health. Secondary objectives are to correlate KAP with their oral health status. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out using self-administered 16-item pretested and pre-validated questionnaire and oral health status data were collected using the WHO oral health assessment form (1997) targeting pharmacy students Vinayaka Missions College of pharmacy. Six, four, and six questions were used to assess pharmacy students' knowledge, attitude, and practice, respectively. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20.0 to perform the Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, Spearman's correlation, and linear regression analysis. RESULTS: 386 participated in the survey (263 males and 123 females). The highest mean for knowledge was among 17–21 years of age group students (18.07 ± 3.07) and this was statistically significant when compared to another age group (P < 0.05). The gender difference was seen with males having a significantly (P < 0.001) more positive mean ± SD oral health KAP compared to their female counterparts. KAP scores upon correlation revealed a positive relationship between knowledge-attitude (r = 0.015), knowledge-practice (r = 0.016), and attitude-practice (r = 0.069). RESULTS: 386 participated in the survey (263 males and 123 females). The highest mean for knowledge was among 17–21 years of age group students (18.07 ± 3.07) and this was statistically significant when compared to another age group (P < 0.05). The gender difference was seen with males having a significantly (P < 0.001) more positive mean ± SD oral health KAP compared to their female counterparts. KAP scores upon correlation revealed a positive relationship between knowledge-attitude (r = 0.015), knowledge-practice (r = 0.016), and attitude-practice (r = 0.069). CONCLUSION: Results of this study suggest that oral health KAP of students is inadequate and needs to be improved as they play an important role in the patients' counseling toward oral care.