Study Protocol for an Online Questionnaire Survey on Symptoms/Signs, Protective Measures, Level of Awareness and Perception Regarding COVID-19 Outbreak among Dentists. A Global Survey

Campus, Guglielmo; Diaz-Betancourt, Marcela; Cagetti, Maria Grazia; Carvalho, Joana Christina; Carvalho, Thiago Saads; Cortés-Martinicorena, Javier F.; Deschner, James; Douglas, Gail; Giacaman, Rodrigo A.; Mačiulskienė, Vita; Manton, David J.; Raggio, Daniela Prócida; Ramos‐Gomez, Francisco; Sava-Rosianu, Ruxandra; Морозова, Н.С.; Spagnuolo, Gianrico; Vuković, Ana; Wolf, Thomas Gerhard

doi:10.3390/ijerph17155598

Cited by 55 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Still, no data on the health conditions of dentists with regard to COVID-19 are available to date. The percentage of people who tested positive or had COVID-19 (0.91%) in the study is similar to the areas of populations with high prevalence of COVID-19 and is in agreement with a study in the North of Italy [8]. This data could be due to a possibly higher participation rate in the survey of persons infected with the virus or with claimed symptoms/signs.…”

Section: Awareness Of Covid-19supporting

confidence: 90%

“…The use of protective measures, such as face filter (FFP2/FFP3) masks, was confirmed by about half of the dentists, as previously reported in the literature [8]. There is a large discrepancy in the use of disposable visors/headset in the present survey, which was about 10-12% and 64% in northern Italy [8].…”

Section: Protective Measuressupporting

confidence: 85%

“…The data were cleaned and then transferred to STATA16 TM (Stata Corp., College Station, TX, USA) for statistical analysis. The 26 Swiss cantons and the Principality of Liechtenstein were grouped according to the COVID-19 prevalence as follows [8,15]: Areas of a low prevalence of COVID-19 lower than 0.30% were grouped together (AG, AI, AR, LU, FL, NW, OW, SG, SH, SO, SZ, TG, TI, ZG). Regions with a prevalence between 0.33% and 0.62% were grouped together as middle prevalence (BL, BS, FR, GL, GL, GR, JU, NE, UR, VS, ZH).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The global questionnaire was developed on the basis of a previous pilot study performed in Italy [8] at the beginning of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the northern Italian hotspot, the region around Milan, Lombardy. In brief, the items related to the health situation, risk, was derived from the questionnaire developed for SARS risk [9] following the Stehr-Green scale.…”

Section: Development and Calibration Of The Questionnairementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Large population-based studies are needed to estimate the infectivity rate among dentists, to collect symptoms/signs presumably related to the COVID-19 and to investigate the adopted preventive measures and personal protective equipment (PPE). The University of Bern designed and carried out a global survey to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak among dentists working in different countries [8,9]. In Switzerland, the survey was accomplished in collaboration with the Swiss Dental Association SSO; therefore, the aim of this paper was to analyze, evaluate and describe the information about dentists' awareness, protective measures and economic effects during the global COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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COVID-19 in Switzerland and Liechtenstein: A Cross-Sectional Survey among Dentists’ Awareness, Protective Measures and Economic Effects

Wolf

Zeyer

Campus

2020

IJERPH

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The aim of this observational cross-sectional study was to gain information on the awareness; protective measures and economic effects of dentists in Switzerland during the global COVID-19 pandemic. All dentist were members of the Swiss Dental Association SSO from all over Switzerland—including all Swiss cantons and Liechtenstein—and received a previously calibrated questionnaire as an ad hoc online version. The questionnaire was divided into four parts: personal data; precautionary measures; awareness; perception. In total, 1324 questionnaires were analyzed; the response rate was 30.59% (ntotal = 4328). Participants stated in less than 2% common symptoms/signs of COVID-19; of which only fatigue was statistically significant (p < 0.01). A small number of dentists reported a positive test (0.91%; n = 12) or having one or more symptoms (2.65%; n = 35) of COVID-19 during the pandemic; whereas only 6.71% (n = 87) of the participants reported having treated SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. High prevalence areas were only medium-large and large Swiss cantons (p < 0.01). Face filter (FFP2/FFP3) masks were used by about half of the dentists, while disposable visor was rarely used. The majority of dentists had to reduce the dental practice activity to a minimum of 0–10% (n = 923; 69.98%) due to the lockdown. This economic impact forced 1.4% (n = 18) to close their practice permanently or by the end of 2020 due to the economic situation. These results can be helpful to better prepare dental practices for future outbreaks of infection (e.g., prophylactic storage of additional protective measures), define the best strategy and organize the dental workforce. Political decision-makers should consider drastic economic effects when deciding on drastic measures such as “lockdown”, which can lead to practice closures and unemployment of dental staff after only a few weeks. This should be taken into account, especially with regard to possible financial assistance to severely impaired dental practices to maintain a high level of dental care.

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Section: Awareness Of Covid-19supporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Protective Measuressupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Development and Calibration Of The Questionnairementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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