Awareness towards covid-19 precautions among dental students: A short survey

ABSTRACT

Objective: To assess the awareness of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) among dental undergraduates, interns and postgraduate students. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire based online survey with regards to knowledge, attitudes, practice was completed by 424 dental students. The questionnaire was divided into 4 sections comprising 13 questions. The initial section collected demo-graphic information of the participants like age, gender, and education status. The knowledge, attitude, and practice of dental students regarding COVID-19 was evaluated in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th section, respectively. Results: An overall mean score of 9.74 ± 2.31 out of 15 was noted. The mean score for knowledge among participants was 3.06 ± 0.17, which indicated that the participants level of knowledge was fair. In total, 81.8% of participants were aware of the main symptoms of the disease. However, 78.8% of participants reflected a positive attitude towards the use of a mask specifical-ly for the carriers with a droplet spread disease. Students' t-test did not show any significant difference with respect to knowl-edge, attitude and practice among male and female participants. Whereas a statistically significant differences in participants' knowledge and attitude domains was noted with respect to the education levels, as postgraduate students possessed a higher mean scores when compared to interns and undergraduate students Conclusion: Awareness about COVID-19 among undergraduate, intern and postgraduate dental students was fair.