IADR Abstract Archives
Association Between Parental Education and Oral Hygiene Among Indonesian Children
Objectives: Poor oral health is mainly caused by poor oral hygiene, which is often reflected by individuals’ tooth-brushing habits. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of poor oral hygiene practice among children in Indonesia and its association with parental education.
Methods: Cross-sectional data from the 2014 Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS-5) was analysed. The sample included 11,023 children aged 14 years or younger. Multiple logistic regression was employed to determine the associations of maternal and paternal education with poor oral hygiene (never brushing the teeth). The covariates included age, sex, residential area, economic status, and family size. Weighting was applied to make the sample representative of the Indonesian population in 13 provinces.
Results: Around 8.6% of children in Indonesia never brushed their teeth. The mean age of the sample was 7.7 years and 51% were male. Younger age (OR=0.40; 95% CI 0.36-0.44), male (OR=0.84; 95% CI 0.72-0.98), lower economic status (OR=0.91; 95% CI 0.85-0.96), lower maternal education (OR=0.74; 95% CI 0.60-0.92) and higher number of children in the family (OR=1.56; 95% CI 1.28-1.90) were associated with never brushing the teeth. Our study could not find associations between residential area, paternal education and tooth-brushing habit.
Conclusions: There is still a need to improve the oral hygiene practice of Indonesian children. Oral health interventions should be specially targeted towards younger children, males and those with lower economic status. Furthermore, our findings that only the education of mothers, but not fathers, was associated with tooth-brushing habit, might indicate the important role of mothers in Indonesia in influencing their children’s oral health behaviours.
Methods: Cross-sectional data from the 2014 Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS-5) was analysed. The sample included 11,023 children aged 14 years or younger. Multiple logistic regression was employed to determine the associations of maternal and paternal education with poor oral hygiene (never brushing the teeth). The covariates included age, sex, residential area, economic status, and family size. Weighting was applied to make the sample representative of the Indonesian population in 13 provinces.
Results: Around 8.6% of children in Indonesia never brushed their teeth. The mean age of the sample was 7.7 years and 51% were male. Younger age (OR=0.40; 95% CI 0.36-0.44), male (OR=0.84; 95% CI 0.72-0.98), lower economic status (OR=0.91; 95% CI 0.85-0.96), lower maternal education (OR=0.74; 95% CI 0.60-0.92) and higher number of children in the family (OR=1.56; 95% CI 1.28-1.90) were associated with never brushing the teeth. Our study could not find associations between residential area, paternal education and tooth-brushing habit.
Conclusions: There is still a need to improve the oral hygiene practice of Indonesian children. Oral health interventions should be specially targeted towards younger children, males and those with lower economic status. Furthermore, our findings that only the education of mothers, but not fathers, was associated with tooth-brushing habit, might indicate the important role of mothers in Indonesia in influencing their children’s oral health behaviours.