The purpose of this study was to examine the dental health behavior and the oral status of mothers with young children. This study was undertaken from 1987 (July) to 1992 (March) at a community health center in Hiroshima. The subjects were 4329 mothers (mean age 29.5 yrs) who attended on the days of dental health checkups for 18-month-olds. The subjects answered the HU-DBI questionnaire (maximum score: 12), an instrument for assessing dental health behavior, and their oral status was examined employing the Oral Rating Index (ORI: +2--2). The main results were as follows:
1. The mean score of the HU-DBI was 4.92.
2. Only 11% of the mothers were judged as having ‘excellent (+2) ’ oral health. Twenty-seven per cent had ‘very poor (-2) ’ or ‘poor (-1) ’ periodontal status.
3. Significant correlation was found between the HU-DBI score and the ORI score in each year.
4. The dental health behavior and the oral status of mothers tended to get better with the years.
5. It took about twenty seconds to evaluate the dental health behavior and the oral status of mothers by the scoring system of the HU-DBI and the ORI.
Therefore this seems to be a good system for use at community health centers.