AUTHOR(S): Dr. Md Imran Ul Haque MDS and Dr. Mohammed Munwwar Ulla Khan MDS

ABSTRACT:Background: The HIV epidemic poses significant challenges to the healthcare providers including dentists. The present study is aimed to estimate the knowledge of HIV/AIDS and the attitude of dental students towards HIV/AIDS patients and to know whether knowledge has any influence on the attitude and willingness to treat HIV/AIDS patients. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out on 219 dental students studying at the SB Patil Dental College and Hospital, Bidar (k.S) India. The students completed a predesigned self-administered questionnaire assessing the knowledge, attitude and willingness to treat HIV/AIDS patients. The data were analyzed using ANOVA test (all the results are calculated at 1% level of significance) and Pearson correlation test. Results: The total mean knowledge score was 76.5% (excellent knowledge). There was a significant difference in knowledge among the third-year, final-year students and internees, which was found to be statistically significant (P>0.001%). The study showed that the overall mean attitude score was 62.9% (negative attitude). There was no significant difference in the attitude of the students among the three groups (P>0.001%). Karl Pearson correlation test showed no significant correlation between the knowledge of HIV/AIDS and the attitude of students towards HIV/AIDS patients (P>0.01%). Conclusions: The findings suggest that although the students had adequate knowledge about HIV/AIDS, their attitude towards this group of people was negative. From the study, fear of HIV contagion was observed as a major reason for the negative attitude of students towards HIV/AIDS patients.

Pages: 255-257  |  1461 Views  86 Downloads