[Investigation of oral health knowledge, attitude, behavior of 12-15 years old children in Chongqing].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the status of oral health knowledge, attitude, behavior of 12-15 years old children and provide a theoretical basis of prevention. METHODS: Multi-stage stratified sampling method was used to extract four middle school students from Chongqing districts and counties (2 in the main urban area and 2 suburbs), and their oral health knowledge, attitudes and behaviors were investigated through questionnaires. All data were entered using Epidata and statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 21.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 3 902 valid questionnaires were collected. The proportion of people who had good brushing habits was 39.7% (1 548), the average oral health knowledge accuracy rate was 58.9%, and the average oral health positive attitude was 88.6%. The number of middle school students who attended the dental experience was 54.5% (2 127), and that of the school who received oral health education was 17.5% (681). There were gender and regional differences in brushing habits. CONCLUSIONS: The knowledge and behavior of oral health among 12-15-year-old middle school students in Chongqing need to be improved. Oral health education for middle school students should be strengthened, especially in rural and suburban areas.