Oral health practitioners’ knowledge, attitude, and awareness about coronavirus

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Oral health practitioners are at the frontline of infection, particularly with respiratory viruses such as the novel coronavirus. Knowledge, awareness, and attitude of these workers are considered important in preventing and controlling the outbreak. This study aims to review the literature to provide a better understanding of the status of dentists and other oral health practitioners' knowledge, attitude, and awareness about COVID-19. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted through Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and ProQuest up to May 6, 2020. All the knowledge, attitude, and practice studies on oral health workers about respiratory contagious outbreak the same as severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and COVID-19 were included in the meta-analysis. RESULTS: A total of eleven studies were included in the meta-analysis. 85.5% of the dentists and oral health practitioners had a high level of awareness about virus transmission modes (95% confidence interval [CI]: 78.6%–92.4%; P < 0.001). 80.7% of the oral health practitioners gave right answers to the questions related to virus transmission modes (95% CI: 69.9%–91.4%; P < 0.001), and 79.9% of the dentists had a positive attitude about virus transmission modes (95% CI: 66.4%–93.4%; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis shows that the level of dentists and oral health practitioners' knowledge, awareness, and attitude was relatively high about the respiratory contagious diseases as well as COVID-19. The present results can shed further light for policymakers to support the best evidence medical education for all health-care workers the same as oral health practitioners. Preventing the dissemination of misinformation along with preparing comprehensive guidelines can be considered by the oral health policymakers, particularly in the more infected regions.

Knowledge, attitude, and practice toward the COVID-19 infection among adults Iran: A cross-sectional study

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Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Oral Health Workforce: A Multicenter Study from the Southern Region of Brazil

“…Oral health workers are engaged in the prevention and control of COVID-19 and need to be guaranteed access to reliable information [56]. High levels of knowledge, awareness and appropriate professional practices have been observed in other studies [13,55,[57][58][59]. During the first wave in Turkey, 58.1% of oral health workers reported receiving training at their workplaces [57], while in Brazil, about 83% of dentists reported not having received specific training to control coronavirus transmission in the workplace [35].…”

Attitude, Knowledge and Practice Towards Oral Hygiene Among Dental Students and Associated Groups of Institution During COVID-19

“…The approaching COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-lifetime event that will be defined by a deluge of social, economic, and health difficulties. To address the aforementioned issues and develop fair expectations about the disease's future course, impacted communities must have a sufficient awareness of COVID-19 (Jafari et al, 2021).…”