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

Abstract

Background. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a global public health emergency that is affecting people across the globe.Objectives. 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.Material and methods. 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 1 st one contained personal information, whereas the 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th 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.Results. 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).Conclusions. 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.

Exploring the knowledge, awareness and practices of COVID-19 among dentists in Bangladesh: A Cross-sectional Investigation

“…This study nds that most dentists have a better knowledge score, which is like the ndings among the Indian, Jordanian and Saudi dentists (Gambhir et al 2020;Kamate et al 2020;Quadri et al 2020). Although knowledge about symptoms is high among Bangladeshi dentists, most of them gave fewer right answers regarding the chance of getting infected from animals, types of COVID-19 virus, and airborne nature of novel coronavirus.…”

“…The response rate was quite low, perhaps because dentists might feel reluctant to ll up the questionnaire because of COVID related stress or unwillingness to take part in research initiatives. The study ndings revealed that the majority of the dentists who took part in this study, completed an undergraduate degree and only 29.3% dentists completed the postgraduate education, this is lower than reported in a multi-country study where only 35% dental practitioners and in Jordan only 30.4% completed their postgraduate education (Khader et al 2020;Kamate et al 2020).…”

The knowledge and practice towards COVID-19 pandemic prevention among residents of Ethiopia: An Online Cross-Sectional Study

“…The main source information for the participants was social media, followed by the Television, which is in line with the multinational study done in India (Kamate, et al 2020). But it is in contradict with a study done in Nigeria in which the main source of information was mass media (Olapegba et al, 2020).…”

Pandemic related Health literacy – A Systematic Review of literature in COVID-19, SARS and MERS pandemics

“…Sociodemographic factors which were commonly associated with better health literacy included higher educational level (23, 26, 27, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42, 43, 45, 72-77, 80-82, 88, 89), increased age (23,26,30,37,40,43,48,50,63,65,72,74,75,78,84,85) and female gender (13,16,23,26,33,34,38,40,41,44,45,60,62,72,74,78,80,81,84,85,89). For health systems-based factors, increased experience in the healthcare system (48,56,63,76,77,89) and attendance in health education programs (28,33,58,60,71,<...>…”