Dental Students’ Readiness to Address Adolescent Risk Behaviors: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Adolescents' engagement in risk-taking behaviors is well documented. However, the role of the dental practitioner in helping teenage patients understand and avert those behaviors is relatively unknown. The aim of this pilot study was to assess dental students' familiarity with adolescent risk behaviors, comfort level in discussing adolescent risk behaviors with teenage patients, and ratings of the relevance of these topics in dental education. Of the 373 University of Florida dental students across all four years who were invited to participate in 2017, 151 (40.5%) completed the survey. Among these respondents, 66% were female, 53% were from an underrepresented minority (URM) group, 40% were above the age of 25, 53% were in their preclinical years of education, and 47% were in their clinical years. In the results, the males had higher levels of comfort discussing adolescent risk behavior topics than the females, and the non-URM students had higher levels of comfort than the URM students. The clinical students showed statistically significant higher levels of comfort and ratings of the relevance of adolescent risk behaviors than the preclinical students. This pilot study assessed these students' comfort in discussing adolescent risk behaviors with patients and their level of agreement about the relevance of those topics in dental education across groups (age, gender, minority status, and educational level). Future studies are needed to examine pre- and posttest changes following interventions aimed at enhancing students' knowledge and comfort in discussing adolescent risk behaviors.

A Multi‐Institutional Study of Dental Student Readiness to Address Adolescent Risk Behaviors

“…In a previous study conducted at our institution, we found differences between preclinical (years one and two) and clinical students (years three and four) regarding comfort level and ratings of relevance 14 . To determine whether those findings would be observed at other dental schools, we expanded the study to include three additional institutions.…”

“…With permission from the AAPD, we developed the questionnaire using a portion of the AAPD Pediatric Medical History–Supplemental for an adolescent patient along with other identified negative risk behaviors. The survey was previously administered to dental students across all four years at a single institution 14 . In previous studies, similar rating scale data have been treated as interval, so they are frequently analyzed using parametric techniques 13, 15, 16 …”