Growth Stunting Prevention in Indonesia: Dentist Knowledge and Perception

Zahira Mayfitriana; Anne Agustina Suwargiani; Arlette Suzy Setiawan

doi:10.1055/s-0042-1757465

Growth Stunting Prevention in Indonesia: Dentist Knowledge and Perception

Eur J Dent. 2023 Jul;17(3):642-648. doi: 10.1055/s-0042-1757465. Epub 2022 Nov 9.

Authors

Zahira Mayfitriana¹, Anne Agustina Suwargiani², Arlette Suzy Setiawan³

Affiliations

¹ Dentist Education Program, Faculty of Dentistry, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia.
² Department of Community Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia.
³ Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia.

Abstract

Objective: Dentists in Indonesia as health workers have a role to play in improving the quality of life of others; thus, dentists' participation in growth stunting prevention is essential. It is also supported by the fact that growth stunting correlates with dental and oral health. Therefore, a dentist's knowledge and perception of growth stunting and its prevention affect the success of a dentist's role in the community.This study aimed to explore the knowledge and perceptions of growth stunting and its prevention in dentists in Bandung.

Materials and methods: A descriptive study was conducted on general dental practitioners and dental specialists in Bandung. The number of participants gathered were 76 general dental practitioners and 30 dental specialists, which, if added all together, are 106 dentists as the study participants. Data was collected using a knowledge-based questionnaire containing three dimensions: knowledge about nutrition, growth and development, and health behavior. In addition, a perception questionnaire contains statements categorized into four dimensions: awareness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance. The questionnaire was distributed online using Google Form. A descriptive analysis was then done on the collected data.

Results: Analysis of the findings showed that 80.19% of the participants have good knowledge of growth stunting and its prevention, 16.98% moderate, and 2.83% have poor knowledge. As for the perception category, the number of participants with positive perceptions is 53.77%, while the number of participants with negative perceptions is 46.23%.

Conclusion: Most dentists in the city of Bandung have an excellent knowledge of growth stunting and its prevention and positively perceive growth stunting and its prevention.

The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).