Análisis descriptivo y tendencias de las tesis de pregrado en Facultades de Odontología peruanas

Abstract

Introducción: El análisis de tesis de odontología en el Perú proporciona información valiosa para optimizar esfuerzos relacionados a solucionar problemas de salud bucal. Objetivo: analizar tesis de pregrado de odontología, de universidades peruanas durante 2015–2019. Método: estudio descriptivo, asociativo y cuantitativo. Se analizaron 1,389 tesis de 14 universidades públicas y privadas. Las variables: nombre de la universidad, tipo de universidad, número de autores, acceso a texto completo o resumen, área académico-profesional, tipo de investigación, orientación a enfermedades prevalentes de la cavidad bucal, año y región de procedencia. Resultados: del total de tesis se tuvo acceso al texto completo en 66.5%, tesis con un autor 87.7% e investigaciones descriptivas 66.7%. Las áreas académicos-profesionales más frecuentes del estudio son: Estomatología Pediátrica y Social 27% y Estomatología Médico Quirúrgico 20.4%. Adicionalmente, el 19.2% están orientadas a la solución de caries dental, 11.4% a maloclusión y 8.1% a enfermedad periodontal. Discusión: los resultados alcanzados fueron similares a otros autores; no obstante, se presentaron escasos estudios con orientación a enfermedades prevalentes. Se sugiere que facultades de Odontología reorienten la investigación prioritariamente a las necesidades y políticas de la salud bucal, a fin de lograr una mejor contribución de la academia a la sociedad.

Characteristics of undergraduate dental theses defended in Peruvian licensed universities and factors associated with their publication

“…In this study, most of the theses were defended in private universities (65.9%), which is similar to that reported by Moromi-Nakata et al (2022) in Peru. This result is related to the higher number of private universities with dentistry faculties and, therefore, of enrollment and graduates who defend thesis.…”

“…When analyzing the methodological designs of the thesis, it was found that most of them were observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional, which is similar to what has been reported in previous research on theses in undergraduate health sciences in Colombia (Cruz Mosquera et al, 2021) and Peru (Taype-Rondán et al, 2012;Mejia et al, 2014;Castro-Rodríguez et al, 2018a,b;Quispe et al, 2019;Castro-Rodríguez et al, 2020;Moromi-Nakata et al, 2022;Angulo-Fernandez et al, 2023;Castro-Rodríguez et al, 2023a,b) but contrasts with what has been reported in another Peruvian study (Aragón-Ayala et al, 2023). This result may be due to the fact that these designs, in methodological terms, are less complex and do not require large investments or follow-ups as in other designs, making them more attractive and feasible for students and tutors (Gutiérrez and Mayta, 2003).…”

“…Universities should promote the practice of research and establish that the theses for obtaining the medical degree should focus on health research priorities in the interest of directing intellectual resources and their impact on national health needs (Quispe et al, 2019;Moromi-Nakata et al, 2022). In addition, they should encourage scientific publication from the undergraduate level, as the benefits of this research practice are widely recognized (Gutiérrez and Mayta, 2003;Castro-Rodríguez, 2019a,b;Corrales-Reyes et al, 2019).…”

“…These researchers report that only 11.6% of the theses were published in scientific journals and this percentage is reduced to 3.3% if only journals indexed in mainstream scientific databases are considered. In Peru, Castro-Rodríguez (2018) described the main bibliometric indicators of the thesis written by students of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, as well as the frequency of publication in scientific journals (Castro-Rodríguez et al, 2018a,b, 2023a and the satisfaction and motivations of the thesis writers (Castro-Rodríguez et al, 2023a,b), whereas Moromi-Nakata et al (2022) performed a descriptive analysis of the undergraduate theses in Dentistry defended in Peruvian universities.…”