Oral health education needs of diabetic patients in Ibadan

Abstract

Previous studies on this group showed very high perceived oral health needs of diabetics. The author therefore considered it necessary to investigate their oral health education needs. This study seeks to highlight the oral health knowledge, attitude and practices of the group with the view of designing a dental health education programme which can be incorporated into the already existing health education programme for diabetics. The study was conducted oh a sample of 120 adult registered diabetic patients from the two diabetes clinics in Ibadan, University College Hospital (U.C.H.) and Ring Road Government Hospital. The study also included fifty healthy adult non-diabetic volunteers for comparism. Glycaemic control was determined by estimating their fasting blood glucose F.B.G. Four trained interviewers interviewed the participants on their oral health knowledge, attitude and practices as well as on vulnerability factors such as educational status, gender, occupation, location and age. Nineteen (19) diabetic patients and fourteen (14) non-diabetic participants were excluded from the study. This study highlights the comparable oral health knowledge, attitude and practices of diabetic patients with the non-diabetic participants. The study shows the good knowledge of all groups on the frequency of tooth cleaning (86.1 %, 84.6% and ?5.2%), their poor knowledge on the necessity of regular dental clinic attendance (25%, 23.1% and 45.2%) and the effect of diet on their oral health (2.8%, 31 % and 29%