Assessment of awareness regarding rhinocerebral mucormycosis among undergraduate and postgraduate dental students: A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Objectives: The incidence of rhinocerebral mucormycosis (RCM), a fungal disease seen in immunocompromised individuals have drastically increased after the COVID-19 outbreak. The aim of the study was to assess the awareness of dental students regarding RCM. Material and Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted among students pursuing BDS/MDS from various dental colleges in Tamil Nadu from August 2021 to October 2021. The questionnaire of 13 questions assessing awareness regarding RCM was administered using Google Forms. List-based random sampling method was used to sample the participants through e-mail and phone numbers of the students from college registries. Reminder calls were made every week to increase the response rate of the study. At the end of 2 months, the final data collected was organized using Google spreadsheets and subjected to statistical analysis through SPSS 22.0. Results: There were 597 respondents from 10 dental colleges, of which 172 were males, and 417 were females. Overall knowledge score for the disease ranged from 0.39 to 12.77 with a mean of 6.37. Postgraduates had greater knowledge in all categories of questions, except for causative micro-organisms, other forms of mucormycosis, its sources in the environment, and symptoms of RCM where there were no significant differences (P > 0.05) between preclinical, clinical undergraduates, and postgraduates. Conclusion: Awareness of dental students regarding RCM was found to be poor to average. Among the three study groups, postgraduates were most aware of the disease. Education and training programs on RCM are necessary for dental students to help them keep an eye out for features of rhinocerebral mucormycosis among the immunocompromised.