한국치위생학회

Effects of social support on toothbrushing in children and adolescents

Seon-Hui Kwak1   A-Yeon Jeong1   Soo-Myoung Bae1,2   Sun-Jung Shin1,2   Bo-Mi Shin1,2,*   

강릉원주대학교 치과대학 치위생학과
1강릉원주대학교 구강과학연구소

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to confirm the relationship between toothbrushing practice after lunch and typical oral health behaviors in children and adolescents according to the subject and type of social support. Methods: The study used data from the 2010 Korean Survey on the Health of Youth and Children and selected 8,704 elementary, middle, and high school students as final targets. Multiple logistic regression was conducted to confirm the link between social support and toothbrushing after lunch. Results: The results showed that in elementary and vocational high school students, statistical significance of all social support variables disappeared after controlling for both demographic and social factors and oral symptom experience. However, in the middle school students, the emotional support of the neighbors and the emotional support of the teachers showed statistically significant effect on brushing daily after lunch (p<0.05). In general high school students, there was a significant association between family emotional support and toothbrushing after lunch (p<0.01). Conclusions: The oral health promotion program for children and adolescents needs to be integrated and coordinated with the overall health promotion program. In particular, it is believed that the school-based program can strengthen the practice of health behaviors by inducing behavioral changes based on the formation of healthy relationships and trust of colleagues and teachers. Therefore, it is necessary to develop social network-based programs including social support such as emotional health and healthy relationships that can be applied among children for oral health promotion. Key Words: Adolescents, Children, Oral health, Social determinants of health, Social support, Toothbrushing

Figures & Tables

Table 1. Composition of questions related to social support variables