Sources of Oral Health Activities Among Croatian University Students—A Pilot Study

TL;DR

This study explores how Croatian university students learn about oral health, finding gender differences in sources like parents, dentists, and self-learning.

Contribution

The study introduces a new questionnaire (OHAQ-S) to assess sources of oral health activities and validates its effectiveness.

Findings

Gender differences were observed in five oral health activity sources, including university, self-learning, and kindergarten.

Primary sources like parents and dental doctors predicted overall oral health activities in both genders but with different secondary sources.

The excellent oral health type showed higher use of dental floss, dental doctor, and university sources in both genders.

Abstract

Background: This cross-sectional designed study aimed to identify the sources of oral health activities (OHA) by introducing a new OHA sources questionnaire (OHAQ-S). Methods: The OHAQ-S was developed from a sample of 658 university students and included measurements from nine sources: scales for parents, Dental medical doctors (DMDs), and primary school sources, as well as single-item measures for other sources. Using QHAQ-S measures, gender differences, determinants of OH activities, and differences between OH types were analysed. Results: Gender differences were observed in five OH sources (university, high school, self-learning, friends, and kindergarten). In both female and male subsamples, primary sources such as parents and DMD predicted overall OH activities, though with different secondary sources. In the female subsample, some differences in OHAQ-S sources appeared between the four OH types. The excellent OH type most notably differed from others by having higher reported incidence of self-learning—dental floss usage and DMD sources—and marginally higher reported use of university and parental sources. In the male subsample, multiple differences in OHAQ-S sources were found among the four OH types. The excellent OH type most distinguished itself by reporting higher levels of DMD, self-learning—dental floss usage, university—acquired OH knowledge, parental, and media and internet—health journal sources. Conclusions: Female students have differently expressed and more-pronounced OHA sources relative to male students and some sources encountered earlier (kindergarten and high school sources), and “independent” learning sources (self-learning versus friends sources). In both subsamples, predictive relationships of OHAQ-S measures with overall OH activities were verified. The findings on the elements of the discriminative and predictive validity of the pilot version of the questionnaire show that the OHAQ-S questionnaire represents a quality basis for constructing a questionnaire on sources of OH activities.