JORDANIAN ROYAL MEDICAL SERVICES DENTISTS KNOWLEDGE, AWARENESS, ATTITUDE, BEHAVIOR AND PRACTICE REGARDING COVID-19: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Exposure of dentists to coronavirus or better known as COVID-19 infection is high due to their work environment and the contiguity of the disease. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of the Royal Medical Services (RMS) dentists toward the COVID-19 pandemic.

An online survey was distributed among a sample of RMS dentists using a pretested and valid questionnaire. Information on sociodemographic data and KAP regarding COVID-19 were collected and scored. Based on the total scores obtained in each domain, every participant was categorized into good, fair, and poor. The association between sociodemographic details and different KAP domains was analyzed using the chi-square test.

The percentage of the participants with good knowledge and good practice regarding COVID-19 was (77.3%) and (61.7%) respectively. The knowledge and practice indexes in this study were 22.68(75.6%) and 17.82(66%) consecutively. Talking about the combined average knowledge and practice index (KP) score and index in this sample it was 40.5(71.05%). Significant relationship between qualification and good practice (p = 0.037) and between the knowledge and the practice (p = 0.002).

It was concluded that RMS dentists showed good knowledge and practice concerning COVID-19. However, they had some knowledge gaps and uncertainties here and there, that needed to be addressed and cleared out.