Oral health practitioners’ knowledge, attitude, and awareness about coronavirus: A systematic review and meta‑analysis
نویسندگان
1 Department of Health Care Management and Health Economics, Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran,
2 Department of Endodontics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Adelaide Dental School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
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4 Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, Adelaide Dental School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5000 SA, Australia,
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doi
چکیده
BACKGROUND: Oral health practitioners are at the frontline of infection, particularly with respiratoryviruses such as the novel coronavirus. Knowledge, awareness, and attitude of these workers areconsidered important in preventing and controlling the outbreak. This study aims to review theliterature to provide a better understanding of the status of dentists and other oral health practitioners’knowledge, attitude, and awareness about COVID‑19.METHODS: A systematic review was conducted through Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, andProQuest up to May 6, 2020. All the knowledge, attitude, and practice studies on oral health workersabout respiratory contagious outbreak the same as severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle Eastrespiratory syndrome, and COVID‑19 were included in the meta‑analysis.RESULTS: A total of eleven studies were included in the meta‑analysis. 85.5% of the dentists and oralhealth practitioners had a high level of awareness about virus transmission modes (95% confidenceinterval [CI]: 78.6%–92.4%; P < 0.001). 80.7% of the oral health practitioners gave right answers to thequestions related to virus transmission modes (95% CI: 69.9%–91.4%; P < 0.001), and 79.9% of thedentists had a positive attitude about virus transmission modes (95% CI: 66.4%–93.4%; P < 0.001).CONCLUSION: This meta‑analysis shows that the level of dentists and oral health practitioners’knowledge, awareness, and attitude was relatively high about the respiratory contagious diseasesas well as COVID‑19. The present results can shed further light for policymakers to support thebest evidence medical education for all health‑care workers the same as oral health practitioners.Preventing the dissemination of misinformation along with preparing comprehensive guidelines canbe considered by the oral health policymakers, particularly in the more infected regions.
