Knowledge and attitudes of Iranian dental students regarding infection control during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 is an emerging and rapidly-evolving situation. This study aimed to measure the level of knowledge and attitude of the Iranian dental students towards COVID-19 and its infection control strategies. This cross-sectional study was designed using a web-based method. The questionnaire associated with COVID-19 was sent to all Iranian students in the clinical course. The extracted data regarding the knowledge and attitude of the students were statistically analyzed. In this study, 531 dental students of the clinical course in 32 Iranian universities were included. The mean age of the participants was 23.13 ± 2.29 years. The average percentage of knowledge and attitude scores were 59.7% (moderate) and 66.0% (neutral), respectively. The association between the attitude of the students and their semesters was statistically signifcant (r = 0.183, p < 0.001). The age of the students was also signifcantly associated with their attitudes (r = 0.150, p = 0.001). The outbreak of COVID-19 might resurge due to re-opening of the dental faculties. Training courses on COVID-19 infection prevention strategies should be held for dental students, especially the junior ones, and the guidelines should be sent to all of them.