Gender and Age Related Disparity in Oral Health Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Among Elderly Pensioners in Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Abstract

There is an increased interest in looking at age and gender differences in health and disease, including oral health.The objective of this study was to determine the influence of age and gender on oral health knowledge, attitude and practice of pensioners in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The research was analytic descriptive survey in design. A total of 543 old people were selected by systematic random sampling. Data was collected with a self-developed Oral Health Assessment Questionnaire (OHAQ) designed in four sections (A-D) and analyzed using SPSS version 20 (IBM SPSS Armonk, New York). Relationship between variables was established using independent t-test and ANOVA, and significance determined at 0.05 alpha level. A total of 543 pensioners were involved in the study, this consisted of 295 (54.3%) were males and 248 (45.7%) females. The age groups 60-64 years, 65-69 years and ≥70 years constituted 234 (43.1%), 206 (37.9%) and 103 (19.0%) of the respondents respectively. Thirty-seven percent, 34% and 41% of the respondents had good oral knowledge, positive attitude and good behavior respectively. The oral health knowledge, attitude, and behavior scores for females were 14.8, 30.2 and 10.8 respectively. These were significantly higher in females than in males. Oral health knowledge and behavior decreased significantly with increase in age, while there was a non-significant decrease of oral health attitude with increasing age. This study found that oral health knowledge, attitude and practice of the pensioners differ significantly with gender, as well as a significant decrease in oral health knowledge and practice with increasing age. The study recommends that promotion of oral health among the pensioners.

Factors Associated with Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Related to Oral Care Among the Elderly in Hong Kong Community

“…Therefore, better attitudes of oral care in elderly people aged 71 to 75 may be due to their adjustment after retirement. Although age was not found as a factor associated with practices of oral care, another study found that increased age was, in fact, correlated with significantly lower oral health practices [31].…”

“…Maintaining better oral health with adequate moisture in the mouth, such as regular drinking water or rinsing the mouth, is fundamental knowledge [16,18]. However, such basic knowledge for oral health, including frequency of tooth-brushing and regular dental visits, worsens among old age groups [31,32]. In the Chinese population, elderly people were found to have poor dental health habits and attitudes, including the lack of using dental floss or attending regular dental checkups [33].…”

Edentulous disparities among geriatric population according to the sexual difference in South Korea: a nationwide population-based study

“…The prevalence of edentulism was higher in participants with a history of smoking, brushing fewer than twice a day, and not taking yearly oral examinations 45 , 46 . These oral health behaviors showed different patterns depending on the sexual difference, and females are known to visit the dentist more frequently, perform better oral care 47 , and have better knowledge, attitude, and behavior about oral health than males 48 , 49 . The elderly female showed about a 10% higher rate of brushing their teeth twice or more a day than males in this study.…”

Hubungan Pengetahuan dengan Sikap Pemeliharaan Kesehatan Gigi pada Siswa SMP Negeri di Kecamatan Medan Denai

“…Hal ini sejalan dengan penelitian Bashiru BO menunjukkan hasil terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara pengetahuan dengan usia. 16 Beberapa faktor yang memengaruhi pengetahuan salah satunya adalah usia dan pendidikan , ataupun disebabkan karena anak usia 15 tahun jauh lebih banyak menerima informasi sehingga pemahamannya jauh lebih baik. Menurut Huclok semakin cukup umur, seseorang akan lebih matang dalam berpikir dan bekerja.…”

“…Sejalan dengan penelitian Bashiru BO menunjukkan terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara sikap dengan jenis kelamin. 16 Sejalan dengan teori Lewin (1970) dan Green (1991) menunjukkan bahwa usia dan jenis kelamin dapat memengaruhi terbentuknya sikap seseorang. Menurut Hadi (2008), perkembangan kognitif, penalaran moral, perkembangan sosial berhubungan pertambahan usia.…”