Oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) in rural Haiti: a 40-year follow-up study

Ralph V. Katz, Samuel E. Prophete, Christina Lafontant, Bette Gebrian, Louis C. Bourdeau, J. R.Ernst Joseph, Gladys J. Lafontant, H. Ludwig St. Jean, Paul E. Rundberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper reports the changed findings over a 40-year period on oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of a very remote and rural population living the Jeremie region of Haiti. The far-sighted investigators of that original 1970 survey stated in their published 1972 paper that our “…findings are descriptive, but have to be accepted tentatively rather than definitively because time was short, transportation was difficult, and the small sample that had to be used could not random.” They further insightfully stated their hopes that their “…results may be regarded as an anthropological cultural baseline from which to review further findings concerning Haitian dental beliefs.” The two follow-up surveys in 1997 and 2010 using the same exact KAP questionnaire on the same population of rural Haitians living in the Jeremie region fulfilled the extraordinary vision of those two initial investigators, Dr. Wesley Young (a nationally renowned U.S. public health dental academician) and Paul Rundberg (then a dental student at the University of Kentucky).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)192-196
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of public health dentistry
Volume78
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2018

Keywords

  • Haiti
  • dental health surveys
  • health behavior
  • oral hygiene

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Dentistry
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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