Knowledge and Practices Regarding Oral Hygiene, Cariogenic Diet Intake, and Dental Check-Ups Among Registered Nurses in Nigeria: A Pilot Study

Introduction

The mouth is the gateway, window, and mirror of the human body.¹ Healthy practices, such as good oral hygiene measures, regular dental check-ups, and healthy diets play a very crucial role in good oral health maintenance.^{234567891011121314151617} Oral hygiene measures such as daily tooth brushing, interdental cleaning, and tongue scraping help to remove oral plaque, pathogenic microbial load, and halitosis, and massage the salivary glands and gingivae.⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹ Regular dental check-ups enhance the early detection and prompt prevention and treatment of oral diseases (oral cancer, dental caries, etc.).^14151617 Healthy diets nourish the body and protects the body from chronic nutrition-related diseases, which have devastating oral disease manifestations.¹⁸ Foods rich in appropriate quantities of micronutrients, vitamins, and proteins build the body immunity against oral infections and enhance the growth, development, functioning, and repair of oral tissues.¹⁸

However, in a situation where the hygienic condition of the mouth is poor, the oral cavity and the body systems stand at higher risk of acquiring diseases.^3101112 For example, local oral infections—such as dental caries, periodontitis, and oral cancer—and systemic diseases—such as infective endocarditis, and cerebrospinal meningitis—have been strongly associated with poor oral hygiene.¹⁰¹¹¹²

Also, the frequent consumption of cariogenic diets such as chocolates, candies, and sugar drinks cause dental caries.¹³

It has been observed that people's understanding and behaviors toward oral health plays a very crucial role in determining their oral health status.^{19202122232425262728} In Nigeria, several studies have been conducted amongst different population groups to explore their knowledge, attitudes, practices, and status (KAPS) concerning oral hygiene, cariogenic diet, and dental check-up^{19202122232425262728}; however, only very few of these studies were conducted among nurses.²⁶²⁷²⁸ From these few studies, it was observed that the prevalence of dental caries experience and poor oral hygiene practices is significantly high among nurses.²⁶²⁷²⁸ For example, in a hospital-based survey in Jos City (North-central Nigeria), by Idowu et al,²⁶ the prevalence of dental caries among nurses was 43.8%.²⁶ Also, only a minority of them had good oral hygiene status (22.7%), flossed their teeth (10.4%), used medium-textured toothbrush (33.1%), and brushed twice per day (31.9%).²⁶ In another hospital-based survey of nurses in Benin City (South-southern Nigeria), by Azodo et al,²⁷ only 28.1% of the surveyed nurses had good knowledge of common oral diseases. Pertinently, to the best of the authors' knowledge, none of these studies investigated the KAPS of nurses in Nigeria concerning issues pertaining to cariogenic diets and dental check-ups.²⁶ Also, all the known literature were reports of single center studies.

Nurses are frontline healthcare workers in Nigeria, and they are being consulted by people, particularly at the community level, for oral health care. This shows that the importance of a nurse's KAPS concerning oral health care cannot be overemphasized—as they are expected to stay healthy and be at the frontline delivery healthcare services to the populations.²⁹³⁰ It is therefore imperative to know the KAPS of nurses concerning oral healthcare, particularly on cariogenic diets and dental check-ups, as this knowledge will provide insights concerning these issues among nurses in Nigeria.

To date, there is no known multi-center study on the KAPS concerning oral health among nurses in Nigeria. There is a need to investigate this phenomenon among nurses at a large scale, involving multiple centers. To achieve this, it is intuitive to first conduct a pilot multi-center study. Pilot studies helps to determine/test the feasibility of participant recruitment process and data collection and analysis approaches to be used for a bigger research project.³¹ It also helps to identify beforehand a broad range of issues and challenges associated with a research design.³¹ Therefore, this current research—an online multi-center pilot study—aims to investigate the knowledge and practices of registered nurses in Nigeria concerning oral hygiene, cariogenic diets, and dental check-ups. Importantly, the findings obtained from this pilot study will provide deep insights and inform the planning and implementation of larger surveys on the KAPS concerning oral health among nurses in Nigeria.

Methods

This pilot study was an online survey of registered nurses in Nigeria; this study also forms a part of a wider collaborative research projects of the Cephas Health Research Initiative Inc., Nigeria.²⁹³⁰ Approval to conduct the project was obtained from the Research Committee, Department of Community Health, Aminu Musa Habib College of Health Science and Technology, Yauri, Nigeria.

The study instrument was an anonymous electronic-based questionnaire (a Google form) which was adapted from an existing questionnaire.³² The questionnaire was then assessed by the research team and other public health experts for face validity, and then tested on five dental surgeons before its use in this pilot study. The questionnaire had three sections. The first section obtained information about their sociodemographic characteristics. The second section assessed their knowledge on oral health (focusing on oral hygiene, cariogenic diets, and dental check-up) through a set of 14 structured questions (Table 1).^{232333435363738394041424344} Lastly, the third section obtained information concerning their oral health practices.

Being a pilot study, a convenient sample size of 120 registered nurses was considered appropriate for the study.

A total of 311 registered nurses were invited electronically, via a link posted on their WhatsApp chat groups, to participate in this study. They were all informed about the aims and objectives of the study; they were also informed that their participation was completely anonymous and voluntary. Only 129 registered nurses responded to the questionnaire, they all gave their informed consent, electronically, before participation. Their participation was completely voluntary and anonymous.

The data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 software (IBM Corp, New York, USA). Descriptive statistics was used to summarize all sociodemographic and outcome variables. Particularly, the assessment of the respondents concerning their knowledge of oral health was determined using knowledge scores. A score of one was given to each of the correct responses provided by the respondents to those questions assessing their oral health knowledge (Table 1). The cumulative scores of each respondent were determined. The highest obtainable score was 14 while 0 was the lowest obtainable score. A cumulative score below 7 was considered to be below average score, while a cumulative score of 7 or above was considered to be an average or above average score. Bivariate analysis of variables was done using Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. The findings obtained from the statistical analysis were presented in texts, tables, and a chart.

Results

This study had a response rate of 41.7% (129/311) and a completeness rate of 96.9% (125/129). The majority (77.5%) of the respondents were Christians, 64.3% were single, 62.2% were females, 43.4% were in the age range of 25 to 29 years, 51.9% were practicing in a public setting, and 89.9% were within their first to ninth years of nursing practice (Table 2).

Ninety-one percent (91%) of the respondents had received oral health training (Fig. 1). The majority (89.1%) of the respondents had average/above average score in their oral health knowledge assessment (Table 3). There was no statistically significant relationship between oral health knowledge and the respondents' sociodemographic characteristics and status on oral health training history (Table 3).

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Fig. 1 History of oral health training among the respondents.

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The majority (66.7%) of the respondents brushed twice daily, 46.5% brushed in the morning before meal, 86.8% used a fluoridated toothpaste, and 60.5% changed their toothbrush every 3 months. Furthermore, a little above half (55.8%) of the respondents consumed sugary snack/drink on daily basis, 55.0% rinsed their mouth with water immediately after taking sugary snack, and only 55.8% flossed their teeth. Among those who flossed their teeth, only 37.5% did it once daily. Also, 26.4% of the respondents had never visited a dentist for a dental check-up. From the bivariate analysis, there was no statistically significant relationship between the participants' gender and their oral hygiene and dietary practices (Table 4).

Discussion

The findings obtained in this study are interesting and of dental public health importance. To start with, the response and completeness rates recorded in this study were low. However, this is not too surprising because online surveys, unlike paper-based surveys, usually have lower response and higher completeness rates.⁴⁵ Based on existing evidence, it can be suggested that the low response rate in this study may be because the nurses invited for the study were very busy, not interested in participating, or not highly digitally savvy.⁴⁶⁴⁷

The majority of the respondents reported that they had received training on oral health. However, from the assessment of their basic oral health knowledge, it was observed that an history of oral health training did not have any significant impact on their basic knowledge of oral health. Furthermore, from the inter-group comparison of those who had oral health training and those who had not, it was found that some of those who claimed to have such training scored below average in the assessment. Many factors might be responsible for this; it might be possible that those who scored below the average mark received such training long time ago and they had forgotten or the training they received was of poor quality.²⁷⁴⁸ Therefore, it is recommended that more needs to be done in ensuring the frequency and quality of basic oral health training received by nurses is of consistent and good.

The oral hygiene practices among nurses are still an issue of deep problematic concern,^26282930 and the findings obtained in this present study corroborates this fact. Although many of the surveyed nurses surveyed reported good oral hygiene practices, the proportion with poor oral hygiene practices is still significant—although not statistically significant—when viewed from the lens of dental public health. For example, close to four-tenth of the participating nurses in this survey only brushed their teeth once a day; this prevalence is relatively lower than that reported (40.9%) among a sample of surveyed nurses in Israel.⁴⁹

Furthermore, only a minority (46.5%) of the respondents brushed in the morning, before meal, and in the night, before bed. This interprets that many of them did not follow the ideal oral care practice.^33343536 Meanwhile, on the contrary, a whooping proportion of them used fluoridated toothpaste, which is very impressive. A fluoridated toothpaste is a known protective agent used for dental caries prevention.³³⁵⁰ Unfortunately, the reported prevalence rate of dental caries (>60%) and poor toothbrushing practices (>40%) among Nigerian nurses is high.²⁶²⁸ Based on the available evidence, it can be affirmed that nurses in Nigeria constitute a high-risk population group²⁶²⁸; therefore, it is recommended that oral health education focusing on the benefits of a fluoridated toothpaste use should be targeted at the nursing population in Nigeria, as this may enhance the uptake of the use of such toothpastes among them.

The consumption of sugary snacks and drinks are dental caries risk factors.¹³ However, this risk reduces if appropriate preventive measures such as mouth rinsing and toothbrushing are done immediately after their consumption.⁵¹ In this study, most of the respondents consumed sugared snacks and drinks on daily basis, while over one-third of them did nothing that is caries-preventive after consuming such substances. Unfortunately, these poor habits predispose them to dental caries⁵¹; therefore, it is recommended that tailored interventions that discourage frequent consumption of sugared snacks and drinks should be implemented among nurses.

Dental flossing involves the use of a floss to remove debris from the interproximal surfaces of a teeth.³³⁵² Dental flossing helps to protect oral health through the removal of plaque, calculus, food debris, and other foreign bodies from the teeth surfaces.³³⁵² However, less than six-tenth of the respondents in this study reported to use dental floss, out of which roughly one-third of them rarely use it.

It is also noteworthy that the majority of the respondents had rarely/never visited a dentist for check-up. This finding is similar to that reported among a sample of nursing students in Nigeria.³⁰ This suggests that the habit of regular dental visit is uncommon among nurses in Nigeria.

However, this study was a pilot study—which is a limitation to the findings.⁵³ Being a pilot study, it will be difficult to make unguided generalizations based on the study data.⁵³ Therefore, there is a need for a bigger study, probably a paper-based type, to ensure that a nationally representative sample of nurses are represented. Also, the data reported in this study were based on self-reports of the participants; therefore, there is a possibility of recall bias.⁵⁴ To reduce the bias possibility, a structured questionnaire was used for the study.⁵⁵

Notwithstanding this limitation, this study is believed to be the first internet-based study to investigate the knowledge and practices concerning oral hygiene, cariogenic diet intake, and dental check-ups among Nigerian nurses—a rarely investigated health profession population in Nigeria. Also, this study adds new information to the existing body of knowledge on the dental public health conditions of nurses in Nigeria.

In conclusion, this online pilot study recorded a low response rate with the obtained findings showing a high level of basic oral health knowledge and a lower level of appropriate oral self-care practices among nurses in Nigeria. There is a need for a nationally representative study of nurses in Nigeria, preferably a paper-based one, to further establish these findings.