Assessment of Knowledge and Practice Toward Oral Hygiene Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care at Shashamane Referral Hospital, Oromia Region, Ethiopia 2019

Abstract

Background:- A woman’s health needs are unique. It is known that at specific times in her life times when she matures and changes, for example, at times when she has special health needs such as menstruation or pregnancy; she needs to take extra care of herself. At the time of pregnancy, women are more susceptible to oral health problems and hence should to take extra care. The first step for a public health intervention program that targets engaging pregnant women in keeping their oral health care should be assessing the women’s knowledge, attitude and practice. Objective:-To assess the magnitude of Knowledge and Practice of pregnant women towards their oral health care attending Shashamane Referral Hospital 2019.Method:-A prevalence cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from April1–May30 at SRH, Oromia Region, Central Ethiopia. The data was collected by structured questionnaire through face to face interviewing technique. During the study period, pregnant women who attend for Ante Natal Care was included in the sample by systematic random sampling method. Result:- Total of 422 pregnant women were interviewed giving 100 % response rate.  About 110(26%) of the respondents reported bleeding gum during pregnancy. The result also showed that 146(34.6%) and 129(29.4%) of respondents labeled as having satisfactory knowledge and safe practice towards their oral health care, respectively. Conclusion and recommendation:- Most of pregnant women had unsatisfactory knowledge and unsafe practice  towards oral health care.

Keywords: knowledge, practice, oral hygiene, antenatal care

DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/66-06

Publication date:September 30^th 2019