Honors Program

Midway Honors

Date of Award

5-2018

Thesis Professor(s)

Tabitha Fair

Thesis Professor Department

Allied Health Sciences

Thesis Reader(s)

Randy Byington, Michelle Johnson

Abstract

There is a significant relationship between nutrition, systemic disease, and oral health. The integration of both nutrition and oral health information into educational programs for dental hygiene and nutrition students is vital for each profession. The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge levels of dental hygiene and nutrition students in regards to content material pertaining to each discipline. This study attempted to provide baseline data for those teaching in ETSU’s Dental Hygiene and Nutrition programs to determine if modifications in the curricula are needed to better prepare future students. Results indicated that there was not a significant difference between the knowledge levels of ETSU senior dental hygiene students and nutrition students. Despite the absence of a statistically significant difference in responses between dental hygiene and nutrition students, evaluating the low scores from each group of students indicated that there is room for improvement. Students demonstrated strong knowledge in some areas and lack of knowledge in other areas in regards to the relationship of diet, nutrition and oral health. Focusing on the areas where the students scored the weakest should be of interest for both programs.

Publisher

East Tennessee State University

Document Type

Honors Thesis - Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

Download

Share

COinS