Version 1
: Received: 26 May 2020 / Approved: 27 May 2020 / Online: 27 May 2020 (07:56:19 CEST)
How to cite:
Kinariwala, N.; Samaranayake, L.; Perera, I.; Patel, Z. Knowledge, Awareness and Perceptions of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a Cohort of Indian Dental Professionals: A Questionnaire-Based Study. Preprints2020, 2020050442. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0442.v1
Kinariwala, N.; Samaranayake, L.; Perera, I.; Patel, Z. Knowledge, Awareness and Perceptions of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a Cohort of Indian Dental Professionals: A Questionnaire-Based Study. Preprints 2020, 2020050442. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0442.v1
Kinariwala, N.; Samaranayake, L.; Perera, I.; Patel, Z. Knowledge, Awareness and Perceptions of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a Cohort of Indian Dental Professionals: A Questionnaire-Based Study. Preprints2020, 2020050442. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0442.v1
APA Style
Kinariwala, N., Samaranayake, L., Perera, I., & Patel, Z. (2020). Knowledge, Awareness and Perceptions of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a Cohort of Indian Dental Professionals: A Questionnaire-Based Study. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0442.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Kinariwala, N., Irosha Perera and Zeal Patel. 2020 "Knowledge, Awareness and Perceptions of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a Cohort of Indian Dental Professionals: A Questionnaire-Based Study" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0442.v1
Abstract
Introduction: COVID-19 is an unprecedented global public health emergency currently impacting India in an unprecedented manner. Aim of this study was to assess knowledge, awareness, perceptions and related factors of Indian dentists on COVID-19. Methodology: A cross-sectional, on-line questionnaire-based study was conducted over one week between 3rd May, 2020 to 10th May, 2020. The sample comprised 403 Indian dentists in solo, group practices and in the academic arena. The self-administered questionnaire assessed 1) knowledge/awareness on factors related to COVID-19 patient identification and symptomatology, 2) knowledge/awareness of COVID-19 transmission and 3) perceptions of COVID-19 history taking procedure. Statistical analyses were conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows, version 21.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY., USA). Frequency distributions and logistic regression analyses were used. Results: Indian dentists demonstrated an overall modest level of knowledge on identification of patients with COVID-19. Moreover, they had a high level of awareness of the COVID-19 transmission means, and the generally accepted procedural perceptions on patient history taking. However, there were some gaps in specific aspects of knowledge and perceptions. Those who were aged ≥ 30-years had a significantly higher level of knowledge of patient identification means than those who were < 30-years (OR=1.78:1.12-2.83); p=0.01. Moreover, specialized dentists were significantly knowledgeable of COVID-19 transmission means than the general dentists (OR=1.89:1.22-2.93; p=0.004). Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate identifiable gaps in knowledge/awareness and perceptions of COVID-19 in Indian dental professionals. These gaps should be fulfilled, at the earliest, due to the rising burden of COVID-19 in India, to ensure safe dental care delivery.
Keywords
COVID-19; knowledge; awareness; perceptions; Indian dentists; coronavirus
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Dentistry and Oral Surgery
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
