Assessing Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of dental practitioners regarding the COVID-19 pandemic: A multinational study.

Shivalingesh Kamate,Kaushikee Sengupta,Sahil Thakar,Kuldeep Dhanker,Ahmed Jhurry Hadi,Alankrita Chaudhary,Ruby Joshi,Swati Sharma,Divya Srivastava

doi:10.17219/dmp/119743

Abstract

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a global public health emergency that is affecting people across the globe. The aim of this study was to assess the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) of dental practitioners regarding the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-2019) pandemic. An online questionnaire was distributed among dentists across the globe using a combination of convenience and snowball sampling. The questionnaire was divided into 4 sections: the 1st one contained personal information, whereas the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sections assessed knowledge (11 questions), attitudes (6 questions) and practices (7 questions) of the dentists. The data was subjected to the Shapiro-Wilk test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate linear regression, and Pearson's correlation; 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated and odds ratio (OR) was obtained. The analysis was done using IBM SPSS for Windows, v. 21.0. The total number of the responses received (860) was divided with regard to various continents (Asia, Americas - North and South, Europe, Africa, and other - Australia and Antarctica). The largest number of dentists came from the Asian continent (264; 30.7%). Most dentists had a degree of MDS (Master of Dental Science) (301; 35.0%), followed by BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) (282; 32.8%) and DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery) (226; 26.3%). High/Good knowledge and practice scores were observed among 92.7% and 79.5 % of the dentists, respectively. Good knowledge scores were significantly associated with qualifications (p = 0.04) and years of practice (p = 0.02); good practice scores were associated with qualifications only (p = 0.03). The dentists were found to have good knowledge and practice scores, which is important to combat COVID-19. They are advised to follow the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines in their clinics, and sensitize their staff so that no stone is left unturned in defeating this pandemic.

Highlights

At the dawn of a new decade, on 30th January, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency against the outbreak of coronavirus disease, which is termed as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), and since has rapidly achieved a pandemic status
The questionnaire was divided into 4 sections: the 1st one contained personal information, whereas the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sections assessed knowledge (11 questions), attitudes (6 questions) and practices (7 questions) of the dentists.The data was subjected to the Shapiro–Wilk test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate linear regression, and Pearson’s correlation; 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated and odds ratio (OR) was obtained
Good knowledge scores were significantly associated with qualifications (p = 0.04) and years of practice (p = 0.02); good practice scores were associated with qualifications only (p = 0.03)

Summary

Introduction

At the dawn of a new decade, on 30th January, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency against the outbreak of coronavirus disease, which is termed as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), and since has rapidly achieved a pandemic status. This disease with flu-like symptoms was ini tially observed among people residing in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China.[1]. The causative organism responsible for this outbreak – the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – belongs to the family Coronaviridae of the order Nidovirales. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a global public health emergency that is affecting people across the globe

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