The Role of Education, Environment, Health Habits and Dental Anxiety on Oral Care in Himachal Pradesh

The aspects of education, environment awareness, health habits and dental anxiety affecting oral health were tested on 102 subjects between 17 and 65 years of Shimla and neighbouring districts in Himachal Pradesh. Level of education varied from uneducated (up to class 5), partially educated (up to graduation) to highly educated (professionally qualified) and they responded to questionnaires on environment awareness (EAS-Environment Awareness Scale (Cito-Arnhem,1994), the Oral Health and Quality of life measure for health habits (OHQoL, Strauss et al.l996). Nutrition and Exercise Habits (Schwarzer & Renner, 2000), Dental Anxiety (DAS-R, Corah, 1969) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12, Goldberg, 1992). The hypotheses stated that educated people will report less dental anxiety, those with low environment awareness will show an overall increase in oral health problems and poor general health, regardless of age and gender; and inadequate nutrition and poor exercise habits will be related to low dental care and disease, and that there will be gender related differences. Results show that male dental patients were conscious of their oral health, had lower dental anxiety, exercised more, had better perceptions regarding their general health as compared to female dental patients who not only reported lower oral health, slightly higher dental anxiety but also poor perceptions regarding their general health. Surprisingly, healthy people had somewhat lower environment awareness in comparison to patients (either male or female). A study of this nature will curtail periodontal disease, and help improve the quality of life and mental and physical well being.