Deepak Kumar Dubey
Barriers in Achieving Oral Health Care among Children with Low Socioeconomic Status: A Cross-sectional Study
Sri Aurobindo Institute of Technology
introduction dental diseases poses serious public health problem children thus children often remain deprived oral health care due various barriers like low socioeconomic status parental ignorance illliteracy etc hinder receive optimum dental servicesthe purpose present study determine barriers may help provide comprehensive dental care childrenaim find barriers attending dental clinics parentscaregivers children belonging low socioeconomic statusmethods study structured validated reliable pretested closeended questionnaire employed collect data 200 parents belonging lower socioeconomic status area gandhi nagar indorean informed consent taken participantsinterview method preferred language used collect datathe questionnaire consisted sociodemographic information viz name age gender education occupation parentscaregivers knowledge attitude regarding oral health care perception regarding importance visiting dental institute reasons nonutilization oral health care services included various barriersfor statistical analysis chisquare test pearsons correlation test internal consistency using cronbach alpha coefficient used p value 005 considered significantresults mean age study subjects 2565194yrsthere equal distribution males females among subjectsmajority illiterate daily wage workersreliability analysis showing internal consistency adequate cronbachs alpha coefficient 082 recommended 070commonest reason non utilization dental services lack time followed financial constraints distance dental clinicsthere significant positive correlation observed utilization oral health care services parents caregivers utilization oral health care services children r0443p value0001conclusions parents strong influence child oral health need communitybased initiatives including schoolbased programs developing trust providers encouraging supporting caregivercontrolled care