Attitudes toward brushing children's teeth—A study among parents with immigrant status in Norway

Abstract

Background: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a common chronic childhood disease with multifactorial etiology including poor parental dietary and hygiene behaviors. Aim: This study aimed to assess toothbrushing-related perceptions among parents with immigrant background living in Norway. Design: A structured interview was performed with immigrant parents to assess their oral health-related knowledge, beliefs, and attitude toward toothbrushing. Immigrant parents of non-Western origin with newborn infants (0-6 months) were included in this study. Results: Of those interviewed, 66% chose to participate and they were found to have an average favorable attitudes, subjective norms, and strong perceptions of control related to child's tooth brushing with reported means of (3.3), (3.6), and (4.6), respectively. They had on average low indulgence (mean 7.8) with respect to this behavior and a relatively high level of knowledge (mean 6.9). Parents with strong intention toward toothbrushing (61%) had on average more frequent oral hygiene behavior than parents with weak intentions. Conclusion: Parents with non-Western origin have adequate knowledge and intention toward toothbrushing, although some have an unsatisfactory attitude, which might affect the oral health of their children negatively. Culture and habits are contributing factors in ECC and should be addressed in oral health prevention policies.

Oral Health Status among Migrants from Middle- and Low-Income Countries to Europe: A Systematic Review

“…Mustafa et al [48] investigated toothbrushing-related perceptions of parents living in Norway with MI background and found that 40% of parents have knowledge about caries as a common disease among children and that 80% of them are aware of the importance of toothbrushing in primary teeth. Moreover, it was demonstrated that oral attitudes were more favorable among MI who had lived in Norway for more than 6 years.…”

“…Our review included thirteen articles analyzing the oral heath in children/adolescents with age ranging from 0 to 19 years old [39,42,45,46,[48][49][50][51][53][54][55]57,58]. Almost all the studies [39,42,45,46,49,51,54,55] recorded a better oral condition in native children of the control groups compared to the MI groups.…”

“…The oral hygiene practices and behaviors of parents has a direct influence on their children's oral health [80]. According to the socialization theory, family represents the primary socializing agent for children and, consequently, it is easy to explain why the latter adopt oral health-related habits [48]. Mothers and fathers with a foreign background are characterized by different cultures and tradition [45], migrating from their country of origin and facing several social and economic problems: this type of conditions may affect the general health of their children [78].…”

“…Authors indicate for each item "yes", "no", "unclear", "not applicable" and finally giving an overall appraisal. Most of the cross-sectional studies included an appropriate sample to address the target population, sampled participants in an appropriate way, choose an adequate sample size and described subjects and settings in detail [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][44][45][46][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. Only two articles [43,47] did not select an adequate sample size and one research [43] did not describe subjects in detail.…”

“…None of the included items indicated the response rate, except for two articles [35,43]. Only three of the selected research papers did not provide appropriate statistical analysis [43,47,48], while all the studies used standardized and reliable methodologies for condition identification and measurement. The exposure measurements were similar for both exposed and unexposed group and statistical analysis was appropriate in all the included cohort studies [56][57][58], but confounding factors were not identified in any of these articles.…”