Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on Oral Health of Public School Children of Batangas City

Dental caries among Filipino children ranked second worst among 21 World Health Organization Western Pacific countries. A recent National Oral Health Survey showed that 97 percent of Grade 1 students and 82 percent of Grade 2 students surveyed suffered from tooth decay. WHO (2007) urges governments to “ promote oral health in schools, aiming at developing healthy lifestyles and self care practices in children”. The study assessed the dental health education of public school children in Batangas City to determine the knowledge, attitude and practices of the respondents on oral health; to determine the significant relationship between the profile of the respondents and their assessment on the dental health education and propose a program to improve the project. This study used a descriptive type of research and distributed a standardized questionnaire to 279 public school children of Ilijan, Sta. Rita Kalsada and Julian Pastor Memorial Elementary School. The participants were selected randomly. The findings of the study showed that there is an observed significant to highly significant relationship between the school and the assessment on oral health in terms of knowledge, attitude and practices. This means that their assessment is affected by the school where they belong.

Keywords – dental health education, oral health, dental caries