%0 Journal Article %T The relationship between parental socioeconomic status and knowledge, attitudes and tendency toward fluoride therapy for their 7-9 year old school children %J Journal of Health Sciences & Surveillance System %I Shiraz University Of Medical Sciences %Z 2345-2218 %A Neghab, Parisa %A Bakhtiar, Mryam %A Golkari, Ali %D 2017 %\ 04/01/2017 %V 5 %N 2 %P 51-58 %! The relationship between parental socioeconomic status and knowledge, attitudes and tendency toward fluoride therapy for their 7-9 year old school children %K socioeconomic status %K Parents %K Knowledge %K Attitude %K tendency %K fluoride therapy %R %X Background: The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status of parents and their knowledge, attitude and tendency toward different forms of fluoride therapy for their 7-9 year-old primary school children in Shiraz.Methods: A total of 444 subjects were selected through multi-stage random sampling. The subjects were parents of 7-9 year old boys and girls attending primary schools in 4 districts in Shiraz. They were asked to fill out a questionnaire containing a number of questions regarding their knowledge, attitudes and tendency toward fluoride therapy for their children.Results: The mean scores for parental knowledge, tendency and attitude toward fluoride therapy for their children were 8.05 ± 2.46, 3.38 ± 1.73 and 54.66 ± 5.89, respectively. As to the parental knowledge, 25.23% and 72.52% of the subjects had either poor or average knowledge, respectively. Similarly, about 32% and 39.6% of the parents had a poor or average tendency toward fluoride therapy and 42.57% and 57.43% of them held a strong or mild positive attitude toward it, respectively.Conclusions: The findings of the present study indicated that the majority of parents did not have sufficient knowledge about different types of fluoride therapy and their caries-preventive effect. They lacked a positive attitude and a strong tendency to practice fluoride therapy for their children. There was a significant association between socioeconomic status of parents and their knowledge, attitude and tendency toward fluoride therapy for their children. %U https://jhsss.sums.ac.ir/article_42832_4cd6f54c59a2094d28809bfa193fa0cc.pdf