Background: The growth of the internet has increased its use to obtain health information including oral health information (OHI). This study assessed Indonesian adolescents' use of different internet platforms to obtain OHI and factors associated with this use.
Methods: A cross-sectional study surveyed middle school students in five regions in Jakarta in 2019. Participants completed a questionnaire that assessed demographics, oral health practices (toothbrushing and dental visits), the presence of dental pain, using internet platform to obtain OHI and type of information searched for. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the association between using the internet for OHI (Google, Social Media (SM), both or none) and the independent factors: demographics, oral health practice, dental pain and whether participants search for causes, symptoms, prevention or treatment of oral diseases (ODs).
Results: Most of the 521 participants were female (55.7%) with mean age = 13.4 years. Almost all of them (93.7%) searched the internet for OHI through Google (40.7%) or Google with SM (36.1%). Searching for OHI over SM was significantly associated with toothbrushing (OR = 4.12, 95% CI = 1.43, 11.89) and less dental visits (OR = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.05, 0.60). Searching Google for OHI was significantly associated with looking for information about causes (OR = 3.69, 95% CI = 1.33, 10.26) and treatment (OR = 6.17, 95% CI = 2.23, 17.03) of ODs.
Conclusions: Most adolescents used Google to seek OHI. Oral health practices and types of OHI searched for differed by internet platform. Dental health professionals should consider using internet-based interventions to promote oral health to this age group.
Keywords: Adolescents; Indonesia; Oral health information; Social media.