Knowledge, attitude, and practice about oral health among mothers of children with special needs – A cross-sectional study

Background: Oral health of children with special needs is dependent on their parent's knowledge and attitude towards dental care. Thus this study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers of children with special needs. Methodology: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted for a period of 4 months among caregivers of 3 to 17 year old children with special needs who visited a tertiary care center (NIEPMD) at Chennai city from February 2018 to June 2018. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 (Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Descriptive statistics was carried out to calculate responses for each question. One way ANOVA was computed to compare means of knowledge, attitude and Practice with Age, Education and Income. Normality of the data was tested using Shaprowilk test. Results: A poor knowledge was seen among the mothers. Education, income and age were found have a statistical significance (p=0.00*) on mean knowledge, attitude and practice scores. Conclusion: More studies exploring the same issue need to be conducted on larger samples covering different populations so as to evaluate, which strategies will be effective and efficient in bringing about a behavior change in mother/parents.