Knowledge of cancrum oris among Nigerian university students: A cross-sectional study

Objectives: The objectives of this questionnaire-based cross-sectional study were to assess the knowledge of cancrum oris (CO) among Nigerian university students and to find a statistically significant association between their levels of knowledge of CO and their selected socio-demographic variables. Materials and Methods: A stratified sampling technique was used to select 56 nursing students at the Federal University Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria. This study was conducted between October 4, 2022, and November 4, 2022, with a 96.4% response rate, and was asked to complete the self-structured knowledge questionnaire related to CO. Results: The results showed that the majority of the respondents were aged 25 years and above; females comprised 61.5% of the participants, while only 36.5% were married. The study revealed that 15 (28.8%) had good knowledge, the majority 31 (59.6%) had average knowledge, and only 6 (11.5%) had poor knowledge regarding CO. Therefore, the H0:1 hypothesis was rejected, while H1:1 hypothesis was accepted. The study shows that there was a statistically significant association between their level of knowledge of CO and their selected socio-demographic variables, such as marital status (single), Chi-square = 6.37, P = 0.04. Hence, the H0:2 hypothesis was rejected, while the H1:2 hypothesis was accepted. Conclusion: The majority of the respondents had average knowledge, and there was a statistically significant association between their levels of knowledge of CO and their selected socio-demographic variables such as marital status (single).