Pandemisi Sırasında İstanbul/Türkiye'deki Ebeveynlerin Diş Tedavisine Yaklaşımlarının Değerlendirilmesi: Kesitsel Araştırma

Abstract

Objective: Due to the transmission of coronavirus by particle or droplet, diagnosis and treatment of dental problems during the pandemic period in dental settings has been seen as a direct infection risk. This study aimed to compare parents' approach to dental treatment with their educational background during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in İstanbul. Material and Methods: The parents were invited to answer the questionnaire via electronic form. The questionnaire form consists of 3 parts: (i) the sociodemographic characteristics of the parents (age, gender, educational level and number of children) (ii) parents' behaviors, risk perceptions and knowledge levels during the COVID-19 pandemic (iii) parents' approaches to dental treatment during the pandemic period (risk perceptions, behaviors and attitudes). The data was evaluated through the SPSS 25.0 statistical package program. Chi-square, Fisher's exact, Bonferroni correction and student t-tests were used to evaluate the difference for categorical variables (p<0.05). Results: Response rate was 73.2% (366 parents). The average age of parents is 28.76. Parents with university or higher education level preferred not to go out as a precaution in the pandemic compared to parents with high school or less education level (p=0.044). When their children had toothache complaints during the pandemic period, the situation of taking them to the dentist was statistically significant and higher in parents with a university or higher education level (p=0.003). Conclusion: All these evaluations show that people with a high level of education have behaved more sensitive in terms of both virus protection and dental treatment behaviors during the pandemic period.