{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T13:27:08Z","timestamp":1772717228350,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772668800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Dentistry Journal"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: This cross-sectional designed study aimed to identify the sources of oral health activities (OHA) by introducing a new OHA sources questionnaire (OHAQ-S). Methods: The OHAQ-S was developed from a sample of 658 university students and included measurements from nine sources: scales for parents, Dental medical doctors (DMDs), and primary school sources, as well as single-item measures for other sources. Using QHAQ-S measures, gender differences, determinants of OH activities, and differences between OH types were analysed. Results: Gender differences were observed in five OH sources (university, high school, self-learning, friends, and kindergarten). In both female and male subsamples, primary sources such as parents and DMD predicted overall OH activities, though with different secondary sources. In the female subsample, some differences in OHAQ-S sources appeared between the four OH types. The excellent OH type most notably differed from others by having higher reported incidence of self-learning\u2014dental floss usage and DMD sources\u2014and marginally higher reported use of university and parental sources. In the male subsample, multiple differences in OHAQ-S sources were found among the four OH types. The excellent OH type most distinguished itself by reporting higher levels of DMD, self-learning\u2014dental floss usage, university\u2014acquired OH knowledge, parental, and media and internet\u2014health journal sources. Conclusions: Female students have differently expressed and more-pronounced OHA sources relative to male students and some sources encountered earlier (kindergarten and high school sources), and \u201cindependent\u201d learning sources (self-learning versus friends sources). In both subsamples, predictive relationships of OHAQ-S measures with overall OH activities were verified. The findings on the elements of the discriminative and predictive validity of the pilot version of the questionnaire show that the OHAQ-S questionnaire represents a quality basis for constructing a questionnaire on sources of OH activities.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/dj14030146","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T11:52:11Z","timestamp":1772711531000},"page":"146","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Sources of Oral Health Activities Among Croatian University Students\u2014A Pilot Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0806-1065","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Diana","family":"Aranza","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tina","family":"Poklepovi\u0107 Peri\u010di\u0107","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Maxillofacial Surgery, Subdivision of Dental Medicine, University Hospital of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia"},{"name":"Department of Prosthodontics, Study of Dental Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3173-6649","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Boris","family":"Milavi\u0107","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2022). 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