Objective: We assessed oral health-related behaviour (OHB) among expecting mothers visiting Finnish maternity health clinics.
Methods: Expecting mothers (n=211) attending two municipal maternity health clinics in Finland completed a self-administered questionnaire on health behaviours such as smoking, tooth brushing, consumption of sweets, and use of dental services as well as mothers’ perceived oral health, and level of education. Accumulation of poor OHB was defined when 3-5 of these risk factors were reported: infrequent tooth brushing, trouble-based and infrequent dental visiting, smoking, and eating sweets regularly (4-7 days/week). Chi-squared tests assessed differences between the frequencies; Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) expressed associations between the variables; Fisher’s transformation was used to test r≠0.
Results: Of the mothers-to-be, 14% were smokers (daily or occasional), 25% brushed their teeth once a day, 3% more seldom, while 72% brushed their teeth twice a day; 19% ate sweets regularly (4-7 days/week), 52% on 2-3 days/week and 29% seldom (0-1 day/week). Reasons for dental visits were check-ups (51%), toothache (14%), restorative care (21%), or else (14%); most of the mothers (90%) had visited a dentist during the last two years. Smoking strongly correlated with lower level of education (r=0.37; p<0.001) and regular check-ups with mothers’ perceived oral health (r=0.37; p<0.001). Poor OHB accumulated in a minority (13%) of the mothers: the percentages being 39% for low, 15% for middle, and 6% for higher level education groups (p<0.001). Greater number of risk factors strongly correlated with mothers’ perceived poor oral health (r=0.52; p<0.001).
Conclusions: While a majority of mothers-to-be showed favourable OHB with recent dental visits, high-risk behaviour accumulated in a minority, calling for targeted prevention and care for them.