<p>Assessing the levels of HIV-related knowledge and attitudes toward HIV-infected patients among undergraduate dental students: a cross-sectional study</p>

Abstract

Purpose Worldwide, in the last decade, the numbers of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have drastically decreased. Despite that, around 18 million infected individuals receive antiretroviral therapy and thus tend to live longer. This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the level of HIV-related knowledge among undergraduate dental students at Ain Shams University (ASU) in Cairo, Egypt and to determine their attitudes toward treating HIV-positive patients. Methods The study sample included 247 undergraduate dental students of third, fourth, and fifth academic years at the Faculty of Dentistry, ASU who were randomly selected to participate in this survey. Data were collected using a self-administrated anonymous questionnaire. Chi square and ANOVA tests were used to measure differences in the level of knowledge and attitudes among students of the 3 years. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed with 95% confidence interval. Results Within the students’ population, around 94% incorrectly considered dentists to be at high risk of acquiring HIV infection and 47% believed that saliva is a vehicle for its transmission. Moreover, the majority of students were unaware of the association between HIV and common oral manifestations such as oral candida, Kaposi sarcoma, and leukoplakia. Although 69% of the students were willing to deliver oral care to people living with HIV (PLHIV), only 33% perceived themselves knowledgeable enough to do so. Conclusion Dental students were not adequately prepared to recognize and manage HIV-positive individuals. Thus, better education and training are required to raise their levels of HIV-related knowledge and enhance their capabilities to treat PLHIV.

HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitudes assessment among women of child-bearing age in South Sudan: Findings from a Household Survey

“…Women with secondary or higher levels of education exhibited good knowledge of HIV/AIDS compared to those without formal education. Our finding supports existing literature linking good knowledge of HIV/AIDS and positive attitudes toward persons living with HIV/AIDS to high education [ 37 , 38 ], indicating that education is an important determinant. Merakou, Costopoulos [ 39 ] highlighted that spending more years in education results in enhanced HIV/AIDS knowledge, which agrees with our findings.…”

HIV Teaching: A dental curriculum which fosters knowledge and attitude

“…In a recent study in Egypt, dental students' poor knowledge of HIV was attributed to conservative cultures and the deeply entrenched HIV‐ and AIDS‐related phobia in the Middle East and North Africa region (Abou El Fadl, Abdelmoety, Farahat, & Hussein, 2019). It appears, therefore, that the reluctance in treating PWH is not confined to dentists from a particular culture or country.…”

Oral health and HIV: What dental students need to know

“…A cross‐sectional study to assess level of HIV‐related knowledge among undergraduate dental students in Egypt found that 94% of students incorrectly considered dentists to be high risk of acquiring HIV infection and 47% incorrectly believed saliva was vehicle for transmission (Abou El Fadl, Abdelmoety, Farahat, & Hussein, 2019). The majority of students were unaware of the association between HIV and common oral manifestations such as oral candida, Kaposi sarcoma and hairy leucoplakia.…”

“…The study also examined attitudes of students towards treating HIV‐positive patients and found that whilst 69% of the students were willing to deliver oral care to people living with HIV, only 33% perceived themselves knowledgeable enough to do so. Dental students were not adequately prepared to recognise and manage HIV‐positive individuals, and it was recognised that better education and training were required to raise levels of HIV‐related knowledge and enhance capabilities to treat patients (Abou El Fadl et al., 2019).…”