Indonesian Dental Students' Attitudes, Knowledge, Preparation, and Willingness to Treat HIV/AIDS Patients

Abstract

Objective To assess the Indonesian dental students' knowledge of HIV/AIDS in terms of transmission and oral manifestation, the attitudes toward people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), the preparedness in infection control, and willingness to treat PLWHA, and assess the factors for willingness to treat PLWHA. Materials and Methods A modified version of a questionnaire used to assess dental students' knowledge, attitude, preparedness, and willingness to treat PLWHA in China was used. The questionnaire was cross-culturally adapted into Indonesian and had been pre-tested for face validity and test and retest reliability. The dental students from 32 dental schools in Indonesia were invited to participate in the study. Results A total of 1,280 dental students from 23 dental schools participated in the study. This study found that only 63% of students scored higher than 70% for knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and the mean score for knowledge was 15.02 (2.4). Higher than 80% of students had a positive professional attitude toward PWLHA; however, 80% of students worried about possible disease transmission in the dental office by PLWHA and 70% of students overestimated the occupational risk when treating PLWHA. The dental students had good preparedness for infection control with a mean score for preparedness of 3.19 (0.4). The mean score for willingness was 2.5 (0.9). Willingness to treat significantly differed by the type of universities, gender, age, and clinical experience. This study showed that knowledge about HIV/AIDS correlated with the willingness to treat PLWHA among dental students. Conclusion Dental students who have good knowledge about HIV infection tend to have a good willingness to treat PLWHA. The knowledge would in turn affect their attitude, preparedness, and willingness to provide care for PLWHA with confidence and comfort. This study suggests that the improvement of dental training may play an important role in changing students' perception of willingness to treat PLWHA.

Digital Assessment of the Knowledge, Attitudes and Preparedness of Dentists towards Providing Dental Treatment to People Living with HIV in Northern Brazil

“…In the current literature, almost all studies worldwide show a lack of knowledge about the dental care of PLWH and show stigma around the treatment of key populations affected by HIV [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Additionally, in Brazil, in the southern region, studies [38,39] have demonstrated similar results to others, although a bias might be present in these studies because they were all executed in only one region or city.…”

“…The self-informed knowledge scale in G1 was 16 (15.8%) and that in G7 was 122 (39.1%). In 2022, Wimardhani et al [33] evaluated, among 1280 Indonesian dental students, knowledge about HIV transmission, oral manifestation, attitudes towards PLWH and willingness to treat PLWH, and only 63% of Indonesian dental students scored higher than 70% for knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Rungsiyanont et al [34] investigated the knowledge and attitudes of 446 dental students, dental practitioners and dentists in Thailand regarding PLWH.…”

Assessment of Knowledge and Attitude of Dental Students towards HIV and Its Oral Manifestations in Saudi Arabia—A Cross-Sectional Study

“…They indicated that dental students recognized oral candidiasis (48.43), Kaposi’s sarcoma (33.9%), condyloma (7.97%), xerostomia (22.22%), necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis (23.01%), and salivary gland infection (28.69%) as common oral manifestations in HIV-positive patients. In Indonesia, Wimardhani et al [ 20 ] reported that dental students identified Kaposi’s sarcoma (58%), oral candidiasis (92%), hairy leukoplakia (79.8%), acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis (68.4%), herpes simplex (60.9%), and xerostomia (49%).…”

“…The questionnaire was developed based on previous similar studies [ 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 20 , 21 ]. At the planning stage, the survey was administered to three experts in this field who had a strong background in HIV.…”

Attitudes and practices of dentists treating HIV+ patients in the era of new antiretroviral therapy: A 12-year update

“…The fear and reticence in the treatment of HIV-positive patients by medical personnel could be due to the invasiveness of dental procedures. In fact, even in studies reporting the 80% of positive attitude towards seropositive patients, the same sample percentage worried about possible disease transmission in the dental office [ 3 ]. Such attitudes have even succeeded in encouraging affected patients to visit different doctors or, worse, to stop undergoing treatments.…”