Cross-cultural differences of self-reported oral health behaviour in Japanese and Finnish dental students

Objective: To determine whether any differences existed in dental health behaviour between Japanese and Finnish dental students. Setting: Hiroshima University School of Dentistry and the University of Helsinki. Design: Comparison of cross-cultural differences of self-reported oral health behaviour. Subjects: Dental students, 337 in Japan and 113 in Finland. Method: Subjects were surveyed using the Japanese and Finnish versions of a 20-item questionnaire entitled Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioural Inventory(HU-DBI). Results: Only 2 per cent of Finnish students reported that they put off going to the dentist until they had toothache, compared to 56 per cent of Japanese students. Similarly, significantly more Japanese students thought that their teeth were getting worse despite their daily brushing, compared to their Finnish peers. The mean HU-DBI score of Year 1 Finnish students was higher than that of their Japanese peers, which suggested a higher level of dental health awareness in Finnish students upon entry into dental school. The mean scores of the Japanese students were lower than those of their Finnish peers until Year 3. The mean scores of Year 5 and Year 6 Japanese students were higher than that of Year 1 students, indicating raised self-care levels influenced by the course in preventive dentistry. The gender difference of the HU-DBI score was not a major feature in either country. Conclusions: Self-reported oral health behaviours seemed to be very different between the two countries, which reflected different culture and/or health education systems of the students.