Oral Hygiene Practices among Adults in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study focused on oral hygiene practices among adults in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria. The descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted for the study. The sample size for this study was four hundred. Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, and chi-square test was used for testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that majority (93.1%) of the respondents practiced oral hygiene. The tested hypotheses showed that there was a significant association between age (X² = 38.068, p<0.05), gender (X² = 5.889, p<0.05) and educational level (X² = 18.587, p<0.05) on practice of oral hygiene. It was concluded that socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and education influences practices of oral hygiene. The study recommended amongst others that Government, ministries of health and non-governmental organizations at all level should mount more intensive enlightenment campaigns through public talk, seminars, conferences and workshop to create more awareness on the need for continues practice of oral hygiene to prevent diseases associated with them.