Awareness of and compliance with healthy oral habits reported by children and their parents in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea after a preventive programme

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to examine awareness of and compliance with healthy oral habits reported by children and their parents in Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), after a preventive programme.

Materials and methods: The data were collected in 2013 with self-completed, partly structured questionnaires from 1994 children aged 10 and 13 years and from 200 parents. Association between awareness of and compliance with healthy oral habits reported by the children and their parents was evaluated using Chi square tests and multivariate logistic regression analyses, children’s oral health habits according to themselves and their parents were analysed using McNemar’s test.

Results: Both children and their parents seemed to be familiar with healthy oral habits, although the awareness was not directly related to the reports of the children’s oral practices. Most of the children reported brushing their teeth at least twice a day, using fluoride toothpaste and drinking water for thirst but frequent sweet snacking was common. Children’s and their parents’ reports were consistent with regard to sweet snacking frequency (p = 0.736) and the main thirst quencher (p = 0.349).

Conclusions: Awareness of healthy oral habits appeared to be good among children and their parents. Unhealthy oral habits seemed to coincide with one another.