TY - JOUR ID - TI - Dental health knowledge, attitude and behavior among first year university students, Mosul. AU - May Gh Al–Ajrab AU - Karam H Jazrawi AU - Saher S Gasgoos PY - 2007 VL - 7 IS - 2 SP - 138 EP - 152 JO - Al-Rafidain Dental Journal مجلة الرافدين لطب الأسنان SN - 18121217 19980345 AB - Aims: To determine the level of oral health knowledge, attitude and behavior among first yearuniversity students in Mosul city, to compare this level among different Colleges also between malesand females. Then the obtained results were compared with those of other studies carried out on similarage groups in other countries, to see if there was any significant difference between them. Materialsand Methods: Nine Colleges were randomly selected from Mosul University, from each College afifty random sample was selected to complete the questionnaires in the classroom. The questionnaires’language was in Arabic included a number of questions related to oral health knowledge, attitude andbehavior. Incomplete questionnaires were neglected. The size of the sample was 425 students, 216males and 209 females. Statistical analysis included calculation of frequency, percentage of answers,and chi-square test. Results: Most of the students (93.2%) brushed their teeth and the majority of them(54.8%) engaged in once daily brushing, less than half of them (48.7%) using other means of teethcleansing aids. A large percent of them had no ideas about the causes of dental caries (75.5%), and howto avoid it (76%). Their knowledge was poor regarding the age at which the primary and permanentteeth erupted( 23.8%, 22.8%) and completed (18.6%, 27.3%). More than half of the students (54.6%)had gingival bleeding but they didn’t know the cause of the bleeding (75.1%) and how to avoid it(75.5%). Most of them like eating sweets (82.1%). Small percent (22.4%) knew what is fluoride and itsbenefit in reducing dental caries (17.9%). Regarding sex differences, females’ answers were in generalbetter than those for males. Conclusion: College students seemed to have appropriate knowledge andbehavior on some oral health topics but these were limited on the others. Health education needs to bedone at universities for enhancing their knowledge attitude and behaviors

ER -