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Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes of dental students towards obesity
K H Awan1, S Khan2, Z Abadeen3
1Department of Oral Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Aims:
Obesity is a chronic medical condition associated with various oral health problems. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes of dental students towards obesity.
Material And Methods:
Second-, third-, and fourth-year dental students completed a self-administered questionnaire. An ethics committee approved the study. Participants were asked questions focused on three areas: (i) knowledge, (ii) perceptions, and (iii) attitudes about obesity. Data analyses were carried out using SPSS version 20.
Results:
Among the dental students, 78.9% received 0-1 h of formal education about obesity. The mean score of the total time allocated for obesity-related education was 1.31 ± 0.23 h. Eighty-nine percent of the dental students agreed that obesity is a chronic medical condition, 30% agreed that they would modify their equipment and office furniture to accommodate obese patients, and 46.8% were interested in learning more about obesity in dental school.
Conclusion:
Obesity-related education should be implemented as a formal component of dental student training. Oral health practitioners should also provide their patients with information about how weight loss is beneficial to both general and oral health.
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