Oral health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of adult patients attending a dental school hospital in Egypt: a cross-sectional study

Oral health is a significant contributor to public health and a basic determinant of general health. As Egypt shows high prevalence of oral diseases, the aim of this study is to assess the oral health knowledge, attitudes and behaviors (KAB) among Egyptian adults. The study also correlates the KAB of the participants with their dental habits, caries experience and sociodemographic characteristics. A cross-sectional survey with non-probability convenience sampling was performed in a dental school hospital in Egypt. The Hiroshima University - Dental Behavioral Inventory (HU-DBI) by Kawamura was used to assess the KAB, the survey also included questions about sociodemographic data and dental habits of the participants. In addition, a DMFT index was used to assess the caries experience. Continuous data was explored for normality using Kolmogrov Smirnov test and Shapiro Wilktest. Correlation between age, DMF, KAB and HU-DBI index was performed using spearman's correlation. Association between categorical data and HU-DBI index was performed using the Chi-Square test. Significance level was set at P ≤ 0.05 and all tests were two tailed. The study participants demonstrated fair HU-DBI score. Knowledge (r = 0.70), attitudes (r = 0.59) and behaviors (r = 0.47) had strong positive correlation with the HU-DBI score. The DMFT score showed a moderate negative correlation (r=-0.35) with the overall HU DBI score. In addition, age showed a weak negative correlation (r=-0.29) with HU DBI score. The dental habits and sociodemographic characteristics showed statistically significant effect on the overall HU-DBI score, with the exception for mouth wash use, gender, health status and smoking status which showed no significant effect. Adult patients in Egypt demonstrate fair oral health knowledge and attitude and poor oral health behaviors, in addition to high caries index. We recommend planning and implementing oral health programs to enhance the oral health of adults in Egypt.Clinical trial number: The protocol of the study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT06689202.