Assessment of Oral Health Knowledge, Attitude and Self-Care Practice Among Adolescents - A State Wide Cross- Sectional Study in Manipur, North Eastern India.

INTRODUCTION: The World Health Organization global strategy of promoting oral health have shown vast improvements in developed countries but the scenario is glum among underprivileged communities due to lacunae in implementation of these promotional programs. Manipur, a North Eastern state in India, is one such marginalized area.

AIM: The study aimed to evaluate Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) towards oral health in 15-18 year adolescents residing in Manipur together with the association of these variables to sociodemographic factors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 810 healthy adolescents drawn from various primary health care centers spanning in all the nine districts of Manipur. A closed ended questionnaire for the purpose of collecting data was used in the survey.

RESULTS: Of the total participants 90.9% had high knowledge, 79.8% had favorable attitude and 70.4% had adequate practice towards oral health. Education of the parents and respondents was the only factor significantly associated with all three variables, knowledge, attitude and practice. Significant and positive linear correlation between knowledge-attitude (r=0.369, p<0.01) knowledge-practice (r=0.405, p<0.01) and attitude-practice (r =0.353, p<0.01), were observed.

CONCLUSION: An overwhelming majority of the respondents had high knowledge, favorable attitude and sound practice with respect to oral health. A positive linear correlation exists between the knowledge, attitude and practice. Evidence based reinforcement programs should be introduced to further reduce the gap between knowledge, attitude and practice. The study will also serve as a reference value for use in future evaluation to help measure the effectiveness of the planned activities. Future research needs to focus on establishing the dental caries prevalence and oral hygiene status of Manipuri youth.