Evaluation of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Dentistry Students of Anzali Campus Dental School about ways of Transmission and Prevention of AIDS in children in 2020

HIV is one of the blood-borne pathogens that is a major occupational risk factor among health care workers. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of dental students of Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Anzali Campus in 2020.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study in which all dental students, including the entrants of Anzali International Campus from2014-2016, who were 150 students, were included in the study. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to assess studentschr('39') knowledge and type of attitude as well as their performance in relation to the nature of AIDS, ways of transmission and methods of prevention of this disease in the presence of the researcher. Questionnaire questions had four sections: demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practice assessment questions.

The results of the present study showed that 55.3% of the participants in the study had moderate knowledge and 44.7% had good knowledge. 76% of the participants had negative attitude, 21.3% had moderate attitude and 2.7% had positive attitude. 3.3% of the participants had poor practice, 29.3% had moderate practice and 67.4 % had good practice. The results of spearman correlation test showed that there is no relationship between knowledge, attitude and practice scores with participantschr('39') age. (P> 0.05). The results of T- test showed that the observed differences in the scores of knowledge, attitude and practice in two genders and in individuals with and without a history of participation in the education courses were not statistically significant (P> 0.05). The results of ANOVA test showed that the observed differences in knowledge, attitude and practice scores in terms of entry year were statistically significant (P <0.05).

The results of this study showed that the level of knowledge and practice of dental students of Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Anzali International Campus about AIDS is in a good level, but most studentschr('39') attitude about this disease was not positive. Continued education will be very helpful in increasing awareness and turning a negative attitude into a positive one about this disease.