Knowledge, Awareness, Practice, Attitudes, and Their Associated Factors about COVID-19 Outbreak in Dental Students

Abstract

Aim: To determine the level of knowledge, awareness, practice, and associated factors about the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in undergraduate dental students at a Peruvian public university. Materials and methods: An observational, prospective, cross-sectional, and descriptive study was carried out. The population consists of all undergraduate students of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal (UNFV) duly enrolled in the academic year 2021–2022. The previously validated and structured questionnaire consisting of 31 predefined answers, including the level of knowledge, awareness, practice, and attitudes in different evaluation sections, was used. The data were analyzed using Stata® 15.0 statistical software. Finally, the associated factors were analyzed by establishing the best Logit model, and a significance level of p < 0.05 was established. Results: In the logistic regression analysis, no variables were found to be associated with the knowledge and awareness, practices, and attitudes of undergraduate dental students regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. The following results were obtained: sex [odds ratio (OR) = 0.49; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.24–1.0], age (OR = 1.06; CI: 0.92–1.21), cycle (OR = 0.94; CI: 0.81–1.09), origin (OR = 0.45; CI: 0.29–60.3). Conclusion: Peruvian dental students at a Peruvian public university had knowledge, practices, and attitudes about the COVID-19 outbreak. Furthermore, none of the associated factors examined were significant in this relationship. Clinical significance: This research has clinical relevance because it allowed us to identify the factors that influence the level of knowledge, practices, and attitudes of undergraduate dental students in order to establish strategies to address this problem.