Oral Health Perception among Officers&Men of the Nigerian Prison Services

Objective: To determine oral health knowledge, attitude and practices among officers and man of the Nigeria Prison Service. Methods: This descriptive, cross sectional study among officers working in Prison headquarters and Kuje command in Abuja from January to June, 2009. Data collection tool was a pre-tested, structured, self administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done using SPSS VERSION 14.0 Results: A total of 407 prison officers made of 57% males with mean age of 37.5+- 9.1 years. Two -thirds (66.6%) of the respondents were senior officers. Only 15.7% of the respondents had good oral health knowledge. Oral health knowledge was not significantly associated with age, sex and designation of staff (p> 0.05). More than half (52.8%) of the respondents exhibited positive attitude to oral health and this was not significantly associated with age, sex and designation of staff, (P>0.05). More than half (53.3%) of the respondents cleaned their teeth with toothbrush and toothpaste in this study, however only about one-third (32.4%) of the respondents indulge in twice daily tooth brushing. This practice was significantly higher among younger staff (p= 0.0089), junior cadre staff (p=0.000) and males (P=0.9312). Only 27.5% have never visited the dentist. Oral conditions among the respondents were toothache (55.5%), bleeding gum (61.2%) and mouth odour (47.2%). Perceived higher cost of treatment and fear of dental instruments are the most commonly identified barriers to oral health utilization. Conclusion: Data from this study revealed poor oral health knowledge, negative attitude to oral health and poor oral health practice. There is need for educational and motivational activities to improve it.