Prevalence of preventive oral health behaviors among adults and the elderly in China

Objective To investigate the status of preventive oral health behaviors recommended by "Oral Health Guide for Chinese Residents" among the people aged 35-44 and 65-74 years.Methods Overall 23 271 adults aged 35-44 years and 8 902 aged 65-74 years were selected with multistage stratified cluster random sampling and interviewed with a questionnaire in 2010.Descriptive statistic method was applied to analyse the data.Results The proportions of the persons with the behaviors of having dental visit once a year,cleaning teeth at least 1 time per year,brushing teeth both in the morning and evening,and using fluoride toothpaste were 8.4%,2.3%,36.3%,and 42.3% among the people aged 35-44 years and 12.1%,1.5%,22.1%,and 32.5% among the people aged 65-74 years,respectively.Compared to the rural people,the urban residents showed higher proportions of having the 4 oral health behaviors(P<0.05).The proportions of dental visit,toothbrushing in the morning and evening,and fluoride toothpaste use were higher among the people in the east region than among the people in central and west region(P<0.05),and the female people had higher proportions of dental visit and toothbrushing than the male people.No significant gender and regional differences were observed in the proportion of dental cleaning behavior.Conclusion The proportion of the residents with preventive oral health behaviors recommended by national guidelines is low among adults and elderly people in China,especially among the males and those living in rural areas or west regions.Effective interventions for oral health should be implemented among the populations.