Oral health seeking behaviour among patients attending outpatient clinic in University of Ilorin teaching hospital (UITH) Ilorin

ABSTRACT

Introduction: In sub ­ Saharan Africa, oral health services are greatly hampered by low availability and poor accessibility to health care and these are various interrelated factors responsible. This study determined the factors that influence oral health seeking behavior among patients attending outpatients' clinic. Methodology: A total of 460patients were selected into the study from the outpatients' clinic using systematic random sampling. Data was collected and was analyzed using SPSS 17. The significant level was set at 0.05 Results: Of the 97.3% of the respondents with awareness of oral health facility, 90.9% of them had oral health facility within 5km distance. The commonest complaint was toothache. Majority of the respondents (88.2%) accessed orthodox oral health services mostly for teeth extraction (61.3%). There was statistically significant difference between the awareness of Oral health facility and closeness to residence. Conclusion: Age, awareness and attitude have positive effect on health seeking behavior of patients.