Investigation of Knowledge and Attitudes of Patients Referring to Kerman Dental School about AIDS, (Spring 2006)

The yearly incidences of AIDS continue to grow in Iran. The only way to preclude the outbreak of AIDS virus is promoting the society’s awareness about the disease. However, to implement an effective health educational program, the first step is to have an appropriate correct understanding of the society’s knowledge about this disease. The aim of this study was investigation of the knowledge and attitudes of patients in clinics of Kerman dental school about AIDS in 2006.In this study, 328 patients (aged 15 years or over) referred to oral medicine department were selected. To gather the data, a questionnaire including demographic data and questions on knowledge and attitude toward AIDS was prepared. SPSS (13.5) program, Chi-Square, t-test and variance analyze were used for data analysis.From 328 patients, 36.00% were male and 64.00% were female (mean ages of cases was 31.74±12.212 years). The mean knowledge score was 69.31%. Most of the cases (67.7%) were informed of HIV/AIDS by TV programs. The level of knowledge of women about AIDS was significantly higher than men (p =0.031). In addition, there was a significant relationship between the level of knowledge and education (p =0.0001).86.9% were concerned about AIDS transmission in the dental offices. 48.5% of the cases asked for diagnostic trials for AIDS before any dental treatment for all of the patients, and 48.2% asked for isolation of patients who carry the HIV/AIDS virus. The results stress the importance of providing information about AIDS by media more frequently and with higher quality. Another important factor is having good infection control standards in dental practices.