Knowledge and Attitude of Dental Students towards HIV/AIDS Patients in Melaka, Malaysia

Abstract

Background: Cross contamination of HIV is a real threat today. Dental treatment often includes direct contact with a patient's blood and saliva, therefore dental professionals can be easily exposed to HIV microorganisms. Hence, it is essential to gain insight into dental students' knowledge and attitude towards HIV patients.Method: A cross-sectional survey of 186 clinical year dental students (year 3, 4 and 5) in the 2015-2016 academic session at the Faculty of Dentistry, Melaka-Manipal Medical College (MMMC), Manipal University, Melaka volunteered to participate in the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to determine their knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS patients.Results: Among 137 respondents (females 74.5% and males 25.6%), 40.9% were Malay, 46.7% were Chinese, 10.2% were Indian and 2.2% were others. The majority had an excellent (41.6%) to good (56.2%) knowledge and only (18%) had a professional attitude. There was a statistically significant association of knowledge with gender (P = 0.009) and ethnicity (P = 0.024), However, no association was found between attitude and gender (P = 0.756) or ethnicity (P = 0.792), or between knowledge and attitude (P = 0.473) of dental students.Conclusion: Dental students' knowledge was not significantly associated with attitude. However, knowledge was associated with gender and ethnicity, but no association was found between age and knowledge and between age, gender, or ethnicity and attitude. Material and MethodA cross-sectional survey was carried out from August to December 2015 at the Faculty of Dentistry, MMMC, Manipal University, Melaka, Malaysia. Taking the size of source population (N = 186) and margin of error (e-0.05), the sample size (n) was calculated as 127 by using the Yamane formula. It was decided that the final sample size would include all clinical year (year 3, 4 and 5) dental students (186) who were enrolled at the Institute in the academic year 2015-2016, to allow for participant dropout. The study was approved by Institutional Research and Ethics Committee of the university. The purpose of the study was explained clearly and, a written consent was obtained from the students. All student participation in the study was voluntary and no incentive was given for completing the survey.The survey instrument was selfadministered questionnaire in the English language, which had been previously used among dental students in Iran (4) and India (7). The questionnaire was made up of four parts.1. Part I focused on the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, including gender, age, ethnicity, and batch.2. Part II includes 18 close-ended questions related to knowledge of HIV/AIDS. A total knowledge score was obtained by adding the points given for each true/false question with each correct response scored as two [2] and incorrect responses scored as zero [0]. Hence, a student's total score could range from 0 to 36.The scores (4, 7) were interpreted into four segments: a. < 25% -weak, b. 25%-50% -moderate, c. 51%-75% -good, ...

Evaluation of dental students’ knowledge and patient care towards HIV/AIDS individuals

“…13 In contrast to that reported by Singh et al, who found the percentage of 91%. 14 As to dentists may be more prone to be exposed to cross-infection, the reported percentages (89% of pre-clinical and 93.3% of clinical students) are aligned with those reported in the literature. 13,15 The positive response (20% and 16.8%, respectively to the student' group) on saliva as being a possible mean to transmit HIV reported in the present study is in agreement with that observed by Ellepola et al (6% and 24%).…”

“…These results are similar to those described in other studies. [13][14][15][16] However, a low percentage for this question was reported by Aggarwal and Panat, 5 which may indicate that the participants in that study are relatively less aware of the risks of transmission of the disease. In addition, the data presented here demonstrated that over 90% of the participants are worried about being infected with needle stick injury and would be willing to be tested for HIV after the accident.…”

“…In Sadeghi and Hakimi, 13 studies reported here have identified that dental students associate more frequently oral manifestations of HIV/AIDS to Kaposi's sarcoma, oral candidiasis and GUN, similarly to that found in the present study. 5,7,13,14,[16][17][18][19][20][21] Therefore, most of the students in the current study were able to correctly identify the most commonly diagnosed oral manifestations in seropositive patients.…”

“…Likewise, answers to questions about HIV testing have also shown that there are issues that students need further enlightenment as demonstrated in other studies [13][14][15]. Further clarifications on these subjects are indicated in order to complete the education towards the correct management of the patients with HIV/AIDS.…”

“…Previous studies were employed to build the questionnaire, including four parts. 5,7,13,14 In the first part, the participants were asked about demographic data (eg, the semester they were enrolled and in which Campus; gender; age; previous training in another area of health care); in the second, on biosafety procedures (eg, attitude towards needle stick acidentes, and infection control measures); in the third, on oral manifestations of AIDS; and in the fourth, on the knowledge of HIV infection.…”