Effectiveness of a program on evidence-based dentistry in dental students

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:Evidence-based dentistry (EBD) is an approach to oral healthcare by combining the best scientific evidence and clinical diagnostics, clinical expertise of the dentist, and the patient's treatment needs and preferences. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an education program on EBD offered in a community-dentistry course in improving knowledge and attitudes of students in this regard.STUDY METHODS:By a quasi-experimental study design, 64 senior dental students of Islamic Azad University of Khorasgan recruited in a controlled trial. All of the students were randomized as intervention (32) and control (32) groups. A course-based educational program on EBD was randomly assigned to one group. Actual knowledge, self-assessed knowledge, and attitudes, before and after education, were measured in both groups. A questionnaire consisted of 40 items developed by the researcher was used after confirming its validity and reliability. The difference between mean scores at two timelines were measured and compared in three fields by paired t-test and independent t-test analysis via SPSS version 20 software.RESULTS:While the mean scores of actual and self-assessed knowledge and attitude were not significantly different between two groups at the beginning of the program (P > 0.05), the mean scores of all fields in the intervention group were significantly more than those of the control group after education (P < 0.001). The effect size of intervention was 86%, 62%, and 57% in three fields, respectively. There was not a significant difference between mean scores of three fields in the control group, after the intervention.CONCLUSION:Due to the poor knowledge and attitudes of students and improved knowledge and attitudes of the intervention group after education, the education program seems to be effective. Durability of educational impact and evaluating evidence-based performance can be studied in the future.

Attitude of dental students toward evidence-based dentistry in Iran: A systematic review

“…[ 18 ] In another study, the changes in attitude score were less in comparison to the knowledge scores. They obtained a medium size effect in their analysis[ 19 ] [ Table 3 ].…”

“…As Chiappelli concluded the most urgent and important of these is undoubtedly to craft and validate novel didactic and practical methodologies to teach EBD-both research and practice-to the next generation of dental researchers and clinical dentists and to optimize the integration of EBD in the dental curriculum. [ 25 ] A change in attitudes from negative to positive were found in Najafi's and Asgari's[ 19 ] study after intervention. Spallek et al .,[ 7 ] introduced the lack of students’ desire to use EBD in clinical practice as the reason for such negative attitudes.…”

Knowledge changes after applying evidence‐based dentistry educational interventions to dental students: A systematic review

“…Most of the selected studies originated from North America, 27–30,33,38,40,41 followed by Middle‐Eastern universities 6,35,36,39,46 . Fourteen studies evaluated changes observed in a single group of participants after the implementation of an educational intervention, with no comparative analyses 6,27–30,32,37,39–44,46 .…”

“…Fourteen studies evaluated changes observed in a single group of participants after the implementation of an educational intervention, with no comparative analyses 6,27–30,32,37,39–44,46 . Alternatively, five studies compared parallel cohorts, 31,34–36,38,45 wherein either different educational interventions were comparatively evaluated, 31,34,38 or trained were compared with untrained students 35,36,45 …”

“…The teaching of EBD has been recommended by leading educational organizations, 15–18 and multiple experiences aimed at comprehensively reorganizing and updating curricula have been successfully implemented worldwide 10,19–26 . Minor yet important educational initiatives have also been conceived, and several designs have been tested thus far 6,27–46 . The teaching of EBD to dental students has been generally associated with enjoyable learning experiences, 27,32,43,47 the establishment of positive attitudes toward EBD, 32,42,45 and enhanced performance in other essential skills, 32,47 such as communication and interaction 27 .…”