Oral health literacy is an essential element of an individual to make better oral health decision. Low oral health literacy (OHL) is associated with poor oral health decision and outcome. This study aimed to determine factors associated with oral health literacy among undergraduate students in one of the public universities of Malaysia. Materials and methods:This is a cross-sectional study which was undertaken among the undergraduate students of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). Sample selection was done randomly. A validated oral health literacy index of Malay version was used throughout the study. Ethical approval was obtained from the University Research Ethics Committee and respondents had given their consent prior to the data collection. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS software version 24.0 and the significant level was set at p< 0.05. Results:The mean oral health literacy of the university undergraduate students was 77.7 (95% CI= 76.75, 78.71). Multiple linear regression indicated that female has higher OHL (β= 4.19; 95% CI= 1.99, 6.39; p< 0.001), social science stream has lower OHL (β= -9.14; 95% CI= -11.20, -7.07; p< 0.001) and higher education level of father had higher OHL (β= 1.97; 95% CI= 0.10, 3.83;p= 0.039) than their counterparts. Conclusion:Oral health literacy is higher among the science streams students compared to the social sciences streams. This suggests that science education might play a significant role in health literacy and improving health outcomes.
Introduction: Dental officers could be the first medical personal to diagnose HIV/AIDS and cross-contamination may happen. More efforts should be taken to improve knowledge and the behaviour of dental students towards HIV/AIDS patients. The objective of this study is to assess and compare knowledge and the attitude of USIM dental students towards HIV patients.
Methods: A total of 136 dental students from Year 2 to Year 5 of academic year 2017/2018 participated in this study. Students were consented and briefed about the purpose of the current project prior to answering self-administered questionnaires that have been previously validated.
Results: The mean total knowledge and attitude score were 69.65% (good) and 68.54(%) (passive), respectively. Both clinical and pre-clinical students have passive attitude towards HIV patients and showed good level of knowledge with 70.81% and 66.39% respectively. There were significant association between sex and knowledge of HIV/AIDS among USIM dental students (p=0.001). There is also a statistically positive weak correlation between knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS patients.
Conclusions: USIM dental undergraduates have good knowledge and passive attitude towards HIV/AIDS patients. Improvement of dental curriculum regarding HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS patients is recommended through conducting activities such as seminar, workshop and small-group discussion among dental students.
Study site: Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia