Is accredited social health activists' basic oral health knowledge appropriate in educating rural Indian population?

Introduction: Accredited social health activists (ASHAs) are the grassroot level health activists in the community who are involved in health education and community mobilization toward utilizing the health services. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the oral health knowledge among ASHAs working in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, India. Five Primary Health Centers were randomly selected, and the total sample was 275. Categorical data were analyzed using Chi-square test. P ≤ 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: The mean age was 32 ± 5.11 years and mean education was 9 ± 1.329 years of schooling. ASHAs were categorized into two groups based on their education levels, i.e., Group I whose education qualification is