Hubungan tingkat pengetahuan dengan perilaku perawatan kesehatan gigi dan mulut pada anak SD di Lab School UNAI

Abstract

Abstract Background: The dental and oral health of children in Indonesia is very worrying and needs serious attention from health workers. People often ignore dental and oral health, even though dental and oral health is the beginning of the entry of bacteria and germs that can disrupt other body organs. Maintaining healthy oral and dental health in children is very important to prevent dental disease. Purpose: To determine the relationship between knowledge and oral health care behavior. Method: This type of quantitative research uses a correlational descriptive design with a cross sectional study method. This research was carried out on December 7 2023 involving students in grades 5-6 at the UNAI Lab School. The sampling technique used total sampling with a sample size of 35 students. The dependent variable in this study is dental and oral care behavior, while the independent variable is the level of students' knowledge about dental and oral care. The analysis used was univariate and bivariate. The statistical test used is the chi square test. Results: Knowledge about dental and oral health care in children is in the good category, with an average of 90.88, while behavior regarding dental and oral health care is in the adequate category at 57.1%. There is no significant relationship between knowledge and oral health care behavior because the p-value obtained is 0.267. Conclusion: Having extensive knowledge does not mean having good behavior. This can be influenced by several factors, one of which is personal experience. Personal experiences influence daily habits which can influence their attitudes and perceptions of social stimuli. Apart from that, it also influences everyone's consciousness. If high awareness and a positive attitude will result in good behavior, and vice versa. Suggestion: For schools to make dental health education programs more attractive by providing health education, so that students' behavior and knowledge become better and of better quality. Future researchers should use samples and provide interventions in the form of health education after collecting data so that the research can further increase awareness and encouragement to children. Keywords: Behavior; Dental and Oral Health; Knowledge.