Assessment of Knowledge and Attitude of General Dentists and Practitioners about COVID-19

Since 2019, the coronavirus has become a global problem and Iran has a high mortality rate in this regard. Dentistry and medicine are considered to be high-risk jobs during the pandemic, and it is essential that dentists and general practitioners have sufficient information to deal with the virus. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the knowledge and attitude of dentists and general practitioners in Isfahan regarding COVID-19 disease. Materials &

This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was performed on 200 dentists and general practitioners working in Isfahan. The data was collected by questionnaire and the prepared data were statistically analyzed by, independent t-test, ANOVA and calculating the mean.

The mean scores of general knowledges of dentists and general practitioners were 4.19 ± 1.24 and 4.35 ± 1.36, respectively, and their mean scores of specialized knowledges were 3.71 ± 1.49 and 1.32 ± 4.46 out of 7, respectively. The relationship between specialized knowledge score and degree was significant (p value = 0.001). The mean score of attitude with the subject of "concern about corona" in dentists and general practitioners were 3.39 ± 12.3 and 20.86 ± 2.68 and the mean score of attitude with the subject of "personal protection and preventive measures" in both Group was calculated 26.32 out of 35.

In the present study, dentists and general practitioners had sufficient knowledge about most aspects of COVID-19 disease, but they did not have sufficient knowledge about the incubation period of Corona virus and personal protection protocols and there is an urgent need for training in this regard. They also had a positive attitude towards the use of personal protective equipment.