Dental hygienists' knowledge, performance confidence and awareness of importance of assessing oral cancer risk factors.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the knowledge, confidence and awareness of the importance of assessing oral cancer risk among dental hygienists working in Korea and to provide data for the development of theoretical and technical curricula related to oral cancer prevention tasks.

METHODS: Questionnaires were distributed to 195 dental hygienists, recruited from an online posting. Survey questions were related to the study objectives and demographic characteristics of the participants. An independent t-test and one-way Analysis of Variance were performed to determine the relationships between study variables and participant demographic characteristics.

RESULTS: Seventy-five percent of the participants agreed that it is necessary to conduct oral cancer risk factor assessment for patients, while 46% agreed it was the duty of dental hygienists. The percentage of participants responding correctly to oral cancer risk factors and to oral cancer characteristics ranged from 98% to 31%. Participants with a master's degree or higher and those with oral cancer education experience were significantly (p < 0.003, p < 0.007, respectively) more aware of the importance of assessing oral cancer risk factors. Participants, who performed non-treatment-related work, had significantly (p < 0.046) greater performance confidence than that of clinicians. In addition, 52.5% of the participants had no prior education in oral cancer and 80.8% agreed that additional education and training were required.

CONCLUSIONS: To improve dental hygienists' knowledge of oral cancer risk factors, it is important to provide specific knowledge, and an educational curriculum is necessary that allows incorporating medical interviews, visual inspections and palpation for comprehensive assessments.