Predicting dentists' willingness to treat HIV-infected patients

Abstract

Access to oral health care is extremely important for those infected with HIV, because oral findings can lead to early detection and improved staging and management of HIV infection. In addition, oral lesions associated with HIV infection are often debilitating, but can be managed effectively with proper oral health care. There is ample evidence that dentists have, at times, resisted accepting HIV positive patients (PHIV+). The intent of the research project described below was to develop and test a model predicting dentists' willingness to treat PHIV+. Data were collected from a sample of dentists practising in New York City. The dependent variable was a scale constructed of items measuring willingness to treat PHIV+ under varying conditions. Independent variables were entered into a multiple linear regression equation in iterative attempts to arrive at a model predicting dentists' willingness to treat PHIV+, which was both parsimonious and had explanatory power. The final model included five independent variables measuring: (1) perceived safety; (2) willingness to treat homosexuals; (3) perceived ethical obligation to treat PHIV +; (4) past experience; and (5) perceived norms of colleagues. Perceived safety and perceived norms of colleagues had by far the most predictive power of all independent variables. R2 for the model = 0.58.

Dentists' and dental students' attitudes, knowledge, preparedness, and willingness related to treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS in China

“…Sources of HIV/AIDS stigma most commonly stem from fear of illness, contagion, and death, which in turn contributes to changes in practice behaviors toward PLWHA. This is supported by Sadowsky and Kunzel's 1996 model to predict dentists' willingness to treat PLWHA, which determined that perceived safety had the most predictive power . Seacat et al .…”

Atendimento odontológico de portadores de HIV/AIDS: fatores associados à disposição de cirurgiões-dentistas do Sistema Único de Saúde de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil

“…Foi medida com uma escala de Guttman de quatro afirmativas, adaptada de Sadowsky & Kunzel 19 , que verificava a disposição para o atendimento a pacientes com infecção pelo HIV, na rede pú-blica de saúde, sob as seguintes circunstâncias: (1) paciente de manutenção HIV positivo assintomático; (2) paciente de manutenção HIV positivo sintomático; (3) paciente novo HIV positivo assintomático; e (4) paciente novo HIV positivo sintomático. Os respondentes deveriam responder as quatro afirmativas de acordo com opções "discordo totalmente", "discordo parcialmente", "estou em dúvida", "concordo parcialmente" e "concordo totalmente".…”

“…Estudos com a finalidade de determinar quais os fatores determinantes da conduta de profissionais de saúde em atender pacientes com HIV/AIDS têm sido desenvolvidos em vários países. Os principais fatores associados com a disposição para o atendimento de pacientes com HIV/AIDS, de acordo com lite-ratura revisada, são: preconceito 7,8,9 ; medo do contágio 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 ; atitudes frente à epidemia 8,10,14,15,16 ; conhecimento técnico sobre a infecção pelo HIV 10,17 ; percepção sobre risco ocupacional 11,18 ; experiência anterior com pacientes portadores de HIV/AIDS 2,8,13,18 ; estadiamento da infecção pelo HIV do paciente 14,15,16,19 ; idade e tempo de formado do profissional 2,8,12,17,20 ; e assalariamento no setor pú-blico 14,15,16,17 .…”

Understanding the intention of dentists to provide dental care to HIV+ and AIDS patients

“…Few studies have attempted to understand the factors explaining the intention of dentists to provide dental care to persons with HIV π /AIDS. Among these studies, the willingness or unwillingness to treat patients with HIV π has been associ-221 ated with fear or perception of risk (6,11,12), fear of consequences for the practice if HIV π patients were seen in the clinic (6,12), past history of treating HIV π /AIDS patients (6,12), homophobia (6,12,13), extent of clinician's knowledge of AIDS (9), and perceived ethical obligation to treat HIV π / AIDS patients (6,7,12,14). However, in multivariate models that predicted the willingness of American dentists to treat HIV π /AIDS patients, Sadowsky et al (12) found that the two most important predictive variables were perceived safety in treating HIV π /AIDS patients and perceived norms of colleagues.…”