Guizhou’s Oral Health Disparities: Knowledge-Attitude-Practice Gaps

To investigate the oral health KAP status and influencing factors among Guizhou's middle-aged and elderly population, informing strategies for promoting their oral health. A multistage stratified cluster random sampling method was used to select 2,040 middle-aged group aged 35-44 years and 2,023 elderly group aged 65-74 years in Guizhou Province. The current status of KAP was analyzed using chi-square test and nonparametric tests, Correlations among KAP variables were assessed with the Spearman test, and potential influencing factors were identified through negative binomial regression analysis. In Guizhou, China, the sweet eating behavior, fluoride caries prevention knowledge rate (18.00%) and tooth brushing rate (94.60%), were higher than the national averages. knowledge was correlated with attitude, toothbrushing frequency, and flossing frequency(r=0.511, r=0.276, and r=0.063, respectively), and attitude was positively correlated with toothbrushing frequency and flossing frequency (r=0.271, and r=0.082, respectively); Gender, age, economic region, years of education and type of health insurance were identified as influencing factors of knowledge and attitude level, gender. Additionally, gender, household registration type, and years of education were associated with behavior formation. The middle-aged and elderly population in Guizhou has unique oral health KAP characteristics, and localized educational programs and optimized grassroots policies for different age groups are needed to facilitate the proper translation of KAP.