Knowledge, attitude and practices of Saudi dental hygiene students towards novel corona virus disease (COVID‐19): A nation‐wide study

Abstract

Introduction Healthcare workers involved in procedures that generate aerosol or handling patient specimens are associated with a high possibility of COVID‐19 infection. Thus, it is very important for the health workers to understand the knowledge related to transmission, prevention and protocols of COVID‐19. Methods Cross‐sectional questionnaire study was conducted on dental hygiene students in Saudi Arabia. An online version of pre‐tested and validated questionnaire was used to test the KAP for COVID 19. Results The mean score for knowledge‐related questions was found to be 2.91 ± 1.59, attitude‐related questions to be 2.84 ± 1.41 and for practice‐related questions to be 4.20 ± 1.36. After converting the scores into percentages, any score <60% was categorized as poor score, 60%–80% as average score and >80% as good score. Students showed poor knowledge and attitude towards COVID‐19. But the practice of dental hygiene students towards COVID‐19 was found to be good with the score of 83.4%. Conclusion The outcome of this cross‐sectional study shows that most of dental hygiene students studying in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are following good practices towards COVID‐19 inspite of having poor knowledge and attitude.