Knowledge and attitude towards oral health related behaviors of international students in Chulalongkorn University, during the pandemic of covid-19

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the association of knowledge and attitude toward oral healthcare behavior of overseas university students staying in Thailand between January 2020 and July 2022 and explore the experiences of their oral health problems. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted using an online survey in English operated through the Google platform by convenience sampling among overseas Chulalongkorn University students. The sample size was calculated by the Yamane formula with a minimum sample size of 297 after adding 10% compensation. Descriptive statistics, Chisquare test, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlations were employed using IBM SPSS version 29. Results: Of 311 overseas students, 55.6% were male. The average age of students was 27.5±4.5 years. 68.81% of students were from ASEAN countries, and 73.31% studied in non-health science programs. The study fields, health and non-health sciences, were associated with knowledge (p<0.001) and attitude (p=0.004). Type of health insurance had an association with behavior (p=0.014) and the student’s perspective on dental visits (p=0.014). There is a positive correlation between knowledge and behavior (p<0.001, r=0.198) and between attitude and behavior (p<0.001, r=0.212). Three hundred fifty-nine cases of oral health problems were experienced by 47.3% of overseas students consisting of tooth hypersensitivity (21.2%), gingivitis (15.3%), caries (14%), cracked or broken tooth (10%), severe toothache (9%) and others. There was an association between oral healthcare behavior and oral health problems (p<0.001), and a negative correlation was found between behavior score and the number of oral health problems (p<0.001, r=-0.204). Conclusion: The oral healthcare behaviors of overseas students correlated positively with knowledge and attitude. A negative correlation was observed between behavior and the number of oral health problems. Furthermore, studying in health science programs impacts students' knowledge and attitude toward oral health, while the dental treatment coverage of health insurance affects decisions for dental visits.