The Investigation And Study On Adolescents’ Cognition Of Malocclusion In Tianjin Area

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire to assess adolescents’ cognition of malocclusion, to understand the situation of knowledge towards malocclusion in adolescents of Tianjin area and to find the factors related to awareness of malocclusion.Methods1.The item pool was established through literature review, reference to the related material and organizing group discussion. The items were selected by panel discussion, expert consultation and field survey and then the remaining items consisted the normal questionnaire. A total of120students were selected for pilot study, and among them45students were random selected for repeated measurement after4weeks. Internal consistency reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by determining the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Test-retest stability and content validity was evaluated using Pearson correlations. Factor analysis was applied to assess construct validity.2.A total of903students selected by the stratified cluster sampling from6middle schools were investigated by the questionnaire. We used the statistics analysis software SPSS17.0for analysis of chi-square test, t-test, analysis of variance and correlation analysis.Results1.The questionnaire included33items and five domains:self-perception of malocclusion, characteristics of malocclusion, causes of malocclusion, adverse effects of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment. All dimension’s re-test coefficient were more than0.8, and Cronbachs’ a were more than0.7except one domain. The Pearson correlate coefficients of all the items to their dimensions were more than0.20. Nine common factors were taken by factor analysis, and the cumulative variance was62.327%.2.About10%of the students were not satisfied with their dental appearance and facial appearance, more than70%of the students said they had concerned the teeth arrangement before, the accuracy rate was43.7%about characteristics, the accuracy rate was36%about oral bad habits, over60%of the respondents thought that malaligned teeth had adverse effects on appearance or working life,65%of the respondents had subjective orthodontic treatment need, over50%of the students could understand the benefits about orthodontic treatment. Only21%of the students knew the orthodontic appliance.3.Girls had more knowledge about characteristics of malocclusion, senior school students had more knowledge about causes of malocclusion, secondary school students had more knowledge about adverse effects and treatment, students who had orthodontic treatment experience tended to know more about adverse effects of malocclusion and they had more positive attitude toward orthodontic treatment. Satisfaction with dental appearance and facial appearance had significant negative correlations with awareness level, significant positive correlations were found between concern about teeth alignment and awareness level.Conclusions1.The questionnaire we constructed had good reliability and validity.2.The survey results showed that adolescents’cognition of malocclusion is not enough, they had high concern of malocclusion, most of them wish to have orthodontic treatment, but most of them lack of awareness about causes of malocclusion and characteristics about malocclusion.3.The cognition of malocclusion was significantly correlated with several factors, including gender, age, orthodontic treatment experience, satisfaction with dental appearance, concern about teeth alignment and satisfaction with facial appearance.