Ryalat ST, Sawair FA, Shayyab MH, Amin WM. The knowledge and attitude about HIV/AIDS among Jordanian dental students: (Clinical versus pre clinical students) at the University of Jordan.
BMC Res Notes 2011;
4:191. [PMID:
21676216 PMCID:
PMC3127964 DOI:
10.1186/1756-0500-4-191]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2011] [Accepted: 06/15/2011] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
The present study aimed to address the suspected deficiency in the level of understanding of HIV/AIDS among clinical and pre clinical dental students at the University of Jordan. In this cross-sectional study, structured questionnaires were distributed to fifth year dental students (n = 121) and to third year dental students (n = 144) in the academic year 2008/2009.
Findings
Significantly higher percentage of fifth-year students compared to third-year students felt that the teaching they received on cross-infection precautions and barrier dentistry was adequate (P < 0.001). Majority (84.2%) of fifth-year students were aware that individual carrying anti-HIV antibodies to be an HIV carrier, only 57.7% of third-year students were aware of this fact (P < 0.001). Majority recognized the association between Kaposi sarcoma, oral candidiasis and hairy leukoplakia with HIV/AIDS but knowledge of the association between HIV/AIDS with less frequent lesions was inadequate.
Significantly higher proportion of third-year students compared to fifth-year (39.2% vs. 26.3%) thought that HIV patients should be referred to other centers or support groups for treatment (P = 0.04).
Conclusions
The level of knowledge of Jordanian dental students about HIV and AIDS was generally acceptable; there were inadequacies, however, in their understanding regarding some aspects of AIDS epidemic which demands that dental school curriculum needs some improvement.
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