Gender-specific oral health attitude and behavior among dental students

Abstract

Oral health attitudes and behavior among dental students were found to vary in different cultures. The aim of this research was to assess oral health attitudes among Iraqi dental students at Baghdad University and to compare the differences in oral health attitude between male and female dental students for all academic years and also to determine the differences between the preclinical and clinical years.A self-administrated questionnaire based on a modified version of Hiroshima University Dental Behavior Inventory (HU-DBI) was distributed among 200 dental students at College of Dentistry, University of Baghdad.Significant differences between male and female dental students were found for all academic years with significant and highly significant differences between the first three years when compared with the final year.Female dental students had more positive oral health attitudes and practices than male student, which showed an increase in the percentage of smoking with increase age .Also in, general; this study showed that dental students had poor oral health