A nationwide survey of dentists was carried out in Brazil, a new pandemic epicenter, to analyze how dental care coverage has been affected in public versus private networks, changes in routine and burdens, and how local prevalence of COVID-19 affects dental professionals. Dentists were recruited via email and Instagram®. Responses to a pre-tested questionnaire were collected May 15–24, 2020. COVID-19 case/death counts in the state where respondents work was used to test associations between contextual status and decreases in weekly appointments, fear of contracting COVID-19 at work, and current work status (α = 0.05). Over 10 days, 3,122 responses were received (response rate ~2.1%) from all Brazilian states. Work status was affected for 94%, with less developed regions being more impacted. The pandemic impact on clinical routine was high/very high for 84%, leading to varied changes to clinic infrastructure, personal protective equipment use, and patient screening, as well as increased costs. COVID-19 patients had been seen by 5.3% of respondents; 90% reported fearing contracting COVID-19 at work. Multilevel models showed that greater case and death rates (counted as 1000 cases and 100 deaths per million inhabitants) in one’s state increased the odds of being fearful of contracting the disease (18% and 25%). For each additional 1000 cases/100 deaths, the odds of currently not working or treating only emergencies increased by 36% and 58%. The reduction in patients seen weekly was significantly greater in public (38.7±18.6) than in private clinics (22.5±17.8). This study provides early evidence of three major impacts of the pandemic on dentistry: increasing inequalities due to coverage differences between public and private networks; the adoption of new clinical routines, which are associated with an economic burden for dentists; and associations of regional COVID-19 incidence/mortality with fear of contracting the disease at work.
A nationwide survey of dentists was carried out in Brazil, a new pandemic epicenter, to analyze how dental coverage has been affected (public versus private networks), changes in routine and burdens, and how the local prevalence of COVID-19 affects dental professionals. Dentists were recruited via email and an Instagram campaign. Responses to an online questionnaire were collected May 15-24, 2020. COVID-19 case/death counts in the state where respondents work was used to test associations between contextual status and decreases in weekly appointments, fear of contracting COVID-19 at work, and current work status (alpha=0.05). Over 10 days, 3,122 responses were received, with region, gender, and age distributions similar to those of dentists in Brazil. Work status was affected for 94% of dentists, with less developed regions being more impacted. The impact on routine was high or very high for 84%, leading to varied changes to clinic infrastructure, personal protective equipment use, patient screening, and increased costs. COVID-19 patients had been seen by 5.3% of respondents, and 90% reported fearing contracting COVID-19 at work. Multilevel statistics showed that greater case and death rates (1000 cases or 100 deaths per million inhabitants) in one's state increased the odds of being fearful of contracting the disease (by 18% and 25%). For each additional 1000 cases or 100 deaths, the odds of currently not working or treating emergencies increased by 36% and 58%. The reduction in patients seen weekly per dentist was greater in public (38.7+/-18.6) than in private clinics (22.5+/-17.8). This study provides early evidence of three major impacts of the pandemic on dentistry in Brazil: increasing inequalities due to coverage differences between public and private networks; adoption of new clinical routines, which are associated with an economic burden; and associations of regional COVID-19 incidence and mortality with fear of contracting the disease at work.
Objective To assess the participation of women in publications of dental journals with a high impact factor. Methods Articles published in 2016, 2011, and 2006 in 10 dental journals chosen for their highest impact factors in each dental fields were included in this research. Articles‐related variables collected included the country of origin of each author, the type of study, and gender of the researchers. Gender was examined through PubMed, Scopus, ResearchGate, and respective affiliated institutions. Furthermore, a website designed to discover the gender of names was used when the previous alternatives were not conclusive. Forward stepwise Poisson regression models were used for data analysis. Results A total of 3365 studies were included in the first authorship analysis and 3398 in analysis related to last authorship. The prevalence of women as first authors was 37.2% (confidence interval (CI) 95% 34.5–37.5) and as last authors was 22.6% (CI 95% 21.3–23.9). Having a woman as the last author increased the presence of women in the first author position in scientific dental articles by 16% (prevalence ratio = 1.16, CI 95% [1.04–1.29]). The year of publication, journal, and region of the author were associated with an increase in the prevalence of women as last authors. From 2006 to 2016, the prevalence of women as last authors increased by 61%. Despite these trends, women were still underrepresented in science in the evaluated period. Conclusions There are meaningful gender inequalities in publications of scientific dental papers. Encouraging women to lead research groups can reduce the inequities observed in the present study.
In this study, we describe a method for reaching a target population (i.e., dentists practicing in Brazil) to engage in survey research using traditional e-mail invites and recruitment campaigns created on Instagram. This study addresses methodological aspects and compares respondents reached by different methods. A pre-tested questionnaire was used and participants were recruited for 10 days via a source list of email addresses and two discrete Instagram organic open campaigns. A total of 3,122 responses were collected: 509 participants were recruited by email (2.1% response rate) and 2,613 by the two Instagram campaigns (20.7% and 11.7% conversion rates), respectively. Response/min collection rates in the first 24 h ranged between 0.23 (email) and 1.09 (first campaign). In total, 98.8% of all responses were received in the first 48 h for the different recruitment strategies. There were significant differences for all demographic variables (p< 0.001) between email and Instagram respondents, except for sex (p=0.37). Instagram respondents were slightly older, had more professional experience (years in practice), and a higher graduate education level than email respondents. Moreover, most email and Instagram respondents worked in the public sector and private practice, respectively. Although both strategies could collect responses from all Brazilian regions, email responses were slightly better distributed across the five territorial areas compared to Instagram. This study provides evidence that survey recruitment of a diverse, large population sample using Instagram is feasible. However, combination of email and Instagram recruitment led to a more diverse population and improved response rates.
In this study, we describe and evaluate a method for reaching a target population (i.e., dentists practicing in Brazil) to engage in survey research using traditional e-mail invites compared with recruitment campaigns created on Instagram. A pre-tested questionnaire was used and participants were recruited for 10 days via a source list of email addresses and two discrete Instagram organic open campaigns. A total of 3,122 responses were collected: 509 participants were recruited by email (2.1% response rate) and 2,613 by the two Instagram campaigns (20.7% and 11.7% conversion rates), respectively. Response/min collection rates in the first 24 h ranged between 0.23 (email) and 1.09 (first campaign). In total, 98.8% of all responses were received in the first 48 h for the different recruitment strategies. There were significant differences for all demographic variables (p<0.001) between email and Instagram respondents, except for sex (p=0.373). Instagram respondents were slightly older, had more professional experience (years in practice), and a higher graduate education level than email respondents. Moreover, most email and Instagram respondents worked in the public sector and private practice, respectively. Although both strategies could collect responses from all Brazilian regions, email responses were slightly better distributed across the five territorial areas compared to Instagram. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that survey recruitment of a large sample using Instagram is feasible. However, using Instagram to engage participants is challenging and has limitations that warrant further investigation. Combination of email and Instagram recruitment led to a more diverse population and improved response rates.
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