Awareness and practices related to use fluorides for caries prevention among health sciences university students in Tanzania

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of the study was to assess awareness and practices related to fluoride use for caries prevention as well as identifying the influencing sociodemographic and behavioral factors. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among students in Health Sciences Training University in Tanzania. Data were collected through self-administered structured questionnaire inquiring on sociodemographics, usage of fluorides and awareness of fluorides for caries prevention, and relevant oral health-related behaviors. Data processing was done using SPSS version 23. Cross tabulation with Chi-square test and adjusted binary logistic regression assessed presence, strength, and direction of association between awareness of as well as practices related to fluoride for caries prevention with sociodemographic and oral health behaviors. Results: Three hundred and eighteen university students were assessed with a mean age of 22.7 (SD 2.8) years. Overall, 55.0% of the participants were aware of the role of fluoride in caries prevention and 44.3% had appropriate practice related to fluoride use. Significantly higher proportion of older students (64.9%) and those in senior years (65.5%) of the study were aware of fluoride use in caries prevention compared to their counterparts. The statistically significant differences for appropriate practices related to fluoride use were only for the females (27.1%), senior students (28.1%), and those who visited dental facilities (35.0%). The odds of being aware (Odds ratio 2.5, 95% confidence interval 1.6, 4.0) of and having appropriate practices related to use of fluorides for caries prevention were higher among senior (Odds Ratio 2.4, 95% Confidence interval 1.3, 4.2) participants than the junior participants. Conclusion: Relatively low proportion of university students was aware of fluoride use for caries prevention. Likewise, a few had appropriate practices related to fluoride uses. Sociodemographically, those who were in their senior years of study were more likely to be aware and use fluoride for caries prevention than the juniors.