Risk awareness, exposure to oral health information, oral health related beliefs and behaviours among students attending higher learning institutions in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Objective: To assess the level of exposure to information about oral health from local sources, risk awareness, oral health beliefs and behaviours among male and female students attending higher learning institutions in Dar es Salaam.

Design: A cross sectional survey.

Setting: Government recognised higher education institutions in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1999.

Subjects: The study population comprised of 1123 university students in Dar es Salaam.

Main Outcome Measures: Level of risk awareness, exposure to oral health information, oral health beliefs and behaviour among students.

Results: Despite apparent misconceptions, the level of risk awareness was generally high and did not differ between male and female students. Univariate analysis of variance revealed that female students were exposed to more oral health information, had stronger oral beliefs and performed preventive behaviours more frequently than did their male counterparts. In multiple linear regression analysis, beliefs about the importance of preventive behaviours were significantly related to the frequency with which such habits occurred (beta = 0.19, p < 0.001) across gender and students status. This relationship was significantly stronger among females (beta = 0.33, p < 0.001) than among males (beta = 0.11 p < 0.05).

Conclusion: The results indicate that strengthening beliefs in the presence of accurate knowledge might successfully promote students' oral health enhancing behaviour.