A survey of dental students on global oral health issues in Nigeria

Abstract

Objectives:This study seeks to investigate to what extent are students conversant with global oral health initiatives and policies, students’ willingness to volunteer service at international setting or developing countries and the need for global oral health course in Nigeria.Methods:Final year dental students in two Nigerian Universities were surveyed for this study. The students voluntarily completed the global oral health information questionnaire in a classroom before a scheduled lecture. The collected data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistic 20.Results:All the final year students participated in the survey. All the students agreed that they need to be taught course on global oral health and would consider volunteering their dental skills and expertise in an international setting or developing country. Only 4.5% of the students knew the meaning of the basic package of oral care (BPOC) and none of the surveyed students could correctly name the three components of BPOC. Whereas only 18.2% could identify World Dental Federation and World Health Organization as the bodies that developed global oral health goals for the year 2000, none of the students could correctly list the three components of global oral health goals for the year 2000.Conclusion:This study concludes that a gap exists in the knowledge of students on global oral health matters and recommends that the curricula of schools be constantly reviewed in line with current trends in policies and practices.

Global Health in Undergraduate Education: Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Sudanese Medical Students towards Global Health Education: a cross-sectional study

“…Knowledge levels did not impact the respondents’ interest and perspectives towards global health as a discipline. This pattern is consistent with other studies in LMICs, namely in India [ 17 ] and Nigeria [ 18 ], where the low levels of knowledge did not impact students’ willingness to volunteer their experiences in international settings. This contrasts with the literature in HICs [ 8 – 11 ] whereby first-hand exposure seems to be a determining factor in affecting students’ interests.…”

“…Similarly, Singh & Purohit [ 17 ] and Braimoh & Odai [ 18 ] showed that many students in India and Nigeria lacked knowledge of global health. For example, in Omigoberi and Emoka’s study, few students knew about FDI and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global oral health policy and intervention.…”

Role of Dentistry in Humanitarian Projects: Knowledge and Perspective of Future Professionals on the World of Volunteering in Spain

“…Braimoh et al in Nigeria [ 24 ] investigated the preparation of students to understand the status of oral health conditions globally. Half of the surveyed students stated that their dental education has “moderately” prepared, especially in developing countries.…”

“…All the surveys were anonymous, voluntary, and were carried out to all the students of the faculty (between the first and fifth grade courses) during the month of September 2022. The survey used in this study is original, however the questions about world oral health took as reference the studies of Singh and Purohit et al [23] and Braimoh and Odai et al [24] The survey was divided into 3 parts:…”

A Scoping Review of Internationalization of Dental Education—Identifying Formats and Motivations in Dental Education

“…Furthermore, 7 authors were considered highly-published in this area with more than 1 publication in the final analysis (30, 31, 33-35, 38, 39, 44-52). Only 4/47 (8.5%) of articles originated from middle-income countries (36,47,69,70). There were no scholarly articles originating from low-income countries.…”