Abstract
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major global concern. Objective:This study aims to evaluate the knowledge of dental students toward COVID-19 in a context of a health emergency. Methods:A questionnaire-based survey was drawn up in an online form, to investigate knowledge and awareness level about COVID-19 among dental students at Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Italy. The questionnaire contained socio-demographic questions and 12 questions about definition, contagiousness, symptoms, incubation, source of infection, routes of transmission, treatment and infection control practices related to COVID-19. Results:72 dental students responded to the questionnaire-based survey. The participants had 87.6% of the essential knowledge about COVID-19 and 56.9% of the participants had also already heard about similar respiratory diseases. However, only 50% of the responders perceived a greater risk of contagion for dentists than other health professionals. Conclusion: Italian dental students had a good level of awareness of COVID-19. The most positive attitude of participants was toward the period of incubation, route of transmission and treatment. The COVID-19 outbreak reminded us the importance of knowledge on cross-infection control. It is essential to further sensitize future dentists to not underestimate the risk of exposure to the virus in dentistry.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major global concern
Italian dental students had a good level of awareness of COVID-19
Overall, regarding questions exploring the knowledge about COVID-19, the participants had 87.6% of the essential awareness about the virus
Summary
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spread began in late 2019. This virus, previously known as 2019-nCoV, was isolated in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in December 2019. Similar to other zoonotically transferred diseases, as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and SARS-CoV, emerged. At the time of writing this article, 28637 952 laboratoryconfirmed human cases of COVID-19, with 917417 deaths, have been notified to the World Health Organization (WHO). Has registered one of the highest diffusion rates in Europe with 286297 infections and 35603 deaths [2]. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major global concern
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