Abstract:

Background: Oral hygiene is the practice of keeping the mouth clean and healthy by brushing and flossing to prevent tooth decay and gum disease. Most of pharmacy and nursing students had good knowledge and attitude towards oral hygiene but their level of practice is relatively poor. Thus, this study aimed to determine the level of knowledge, attitude and practice among undergraduate pharmacy and nursing students at CUHAS.

Method: A total of 240 students including 110 pharmacy and 130 of nursing students involved in the study. self-administered, structured questionnaire was distributed conveniently to gather sociodemographic characteristics and data on knowledge, attitude and practice towards oral hygiene. The mean percentages scores, standard deviation and frequency distribution were calculated. Correlation t-test were used to test the association between variables.

Result: The mean percentage scores for knowledge, attitude and practice was significantly higher among pharmacy students than nursing students. All the scores were significant higher in females than males except for the mean score of knowledge. There was no significant relationship between age and knowledge, attitude and practice towards oral hygiene among students. Although there was a significant relationship between knowledge and practice but there was no linear relationship between knowledge and year of study.

Discussion: Although most of the students (99%) had good attitude towards oral hygiene, slightly less than half of the students shows poor knowledge and practice towards oral hygiene, therefore need to be improved upon.