ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDE TOWARDS DENTAL HEALTH CARE AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

The study was conducted to assess practice towards dental health care among primary school pupils in Kaduna State. An ex-post facto research design was used to study 400 subjects drawn from twelve primary schools in the six (6) local government areas from the three senatorial zones in Kaduna state. The subjects were drawn through stratified, simple random, purposive, proportional and systematic sampling techniques. A close-ended questionnaire was used to obtain responses from the subjects. Four hundred (400) questionnaires were returned. Descriptive statistics of frequency, percentages, means and standard deviation were used to describe the demographic characteristics of the respondents. One research question was asked and one hypothesis was tested at a 0.05 level of significance using a one sample t-test. The findings of the study revealed that the attitude of primary school pupils towards dental health care in Kaduna State is positive. It was therefore recommended that primary school pupils should be encouraged by their teachers, parents and health personnel on how to maintain a positive attitude towards dental care.