Longitudinal Curricular Assessment of Knowledge and Awareness of Intimate Partner Violence among First-Year Dental Students

Abstract

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) has previously been recognized as a major public health issue. Oral healthcare providers, such as dentists, are crucial to the screening and identifying of individuals experiencing IPV, since most injuries occur in the head and neck region. A lack of knowledge and awareness regarding teaching and learning about IPV in dental school curricula has been identified. Based upon the overall lack of knowledge, the objective of this study was to conduct a longitudinal assessment of knowledge, awareness, and beliefs regarding IPV among dental students in their first year of education. Methods: All students (n = 245) from three consecutive, first-year dental student cohorts (n = 81, n = 82, n = 82) were provided a brief and voluntary in-class survey in conjunction with an instructional workshop. The survey included questions designed to ascertain knowledge, awareness, and beliefs regarding IPV as a healthcare and dental issue before and after the instructional session. Differences in responses to the questions before and after the IPV educational workshop were measured using paired t-tests. Results: A total of n = 232 completed pre- and post-responses were received from all three first-year dental student cohorts (n = 76, n = 80, n = 76), representing an overall 94.6% response rate. Analysis of these data showed that the student population was predominantly male and white (non-minority), aged in their mid- to late twenties, with most students reporting no previous IPV education. The few students reporting previous IPV education were mainly younger (<25 years), which may represent more recent endeavors to increase awareness of IPV among students currently attending colleges and universities. Conclusions: The results of this study may suggest that information-specific seminars within the curriculum might be adequate to provide dental students with awareness and knowledge of IPV and specific information regarding local resources and referrals for any patients experiencing IPV.

Dentists’ Competence and Knowledge on Domestic Violence and How to Improve It—A Review

“…Nine of seventeen studies were cross-sectional studies (52.9%). In 2021, Buchanan et al [ 20 ] described the results of teaching first-year students about DV. AlAlyani et al [ 21 ] published a study about the awareness of and actions toward patients who witnessed DV in 2017.…”

“…A recent study performed in 2021 at the University of Nevada [ 20 ] revealed that a short training for first-year dental students was very successful. A total of 232 participants went through an in-class instructional workshop with integrated pre- and post-testing; 62.5% of the 232 students were male.…”

“…In all studies on DV training, the impact was found to be positive, as knowledge and confidence in dealing with cases where DV is suspected increased significantly among the participants of trainings [ 16 , 17 , 20 , 28 , 29 ]. Therefore, it is problematic that very few dental schools have courses on DV in their curricula [ 23 ].…”

“…Looking at the studies available ( Table 3 ), it is noticeable that no long-term effects of training interventions have been investigated [ 16 , 17 , 20 , 23 , 28 , 29 ]. It is generally known that teaching must be repeated several times to make it sustainable [ 40 ].…”

“…Our criteria of inclusion were studies on dentists’ attitudes and knowledge about DV, studies on programs in dental schools that provide education on DV, studies on how to recognize possible DV victims, studies on how to support victims and studies on the role of DV indicators, such as injuries in the head and face region, in the detection of DV cases [ 8 , 12 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].…”