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.
Keywords
knowledge - perception - dentists - growth stunting - Indonesia
