Child Oral Health: Practices among Parents Attending Child Welfare Clinics in Murang’a County, Kenya

Abstract

BACKGROUND Early childhood caries affects half of Kenya's under-five-year-old children. This high disease burden suggests possible gaps in child oral healthcare practices among their parents. To facilitate change in practice towards reducing early childhood caries, there was a need to identify current practice gaps. This study thus aimed at assessing child oral healthcare practices among parents attending child welfare clinics in Murang’a County, Kenya. METHODOLOGY This was a baseline cross-sectional study targeting 357 parents of children aged 6-18 months attending the child welfare clinics in Murang’a County, Kenya. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on child oral healthcare practices. The chi-square test and logistic regressions were used to determine the association between predictor variables and practices. RESULTS Fifty-one (14.3%) of the parents cleaned their children's teeth, majority brushed occasionally. Brushing was significantly (p<0.001) influenced by the child's age. Parents' age, sex or level of education did not influence teeth cleaning. Only 2.0% used toothbrush and toothpaste, while a piece of cloth was the preferred cleaning tool (10.9%) and only 1.1% used toothbrush only. Additionally, only 14.3% of participating parents referred to dental health notes in the mother-child booklet, none had filled the baby's teeth development chart. Notably, no parent had taken their child for an index dental visit, consumption of a cariogenic diet was prevalent (32.8%), and uvulectomy (6.7%) was practised among the study population. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Parents visiting the child welfare clinics had poor child oral health practices, consequently, they should be educated on child oral health practices and how to utilize the mother-child booklet for oral health.