Assessment of Knowledge and Attitude towards Hepatitis B Infection Among Dental Students in two Teaching Hospitals of Punjab, Pakistan
Objective: To evaluate the knowledge and attitude of dental students towards hepatitis B infection. Study Design: A Cross Sectional Study (survey). Settings: University Medical & Dental College Faisalabad and FMH College of Medicine and Dentistry Lahore. Duration: Two months from February 1 to March 31, 2018. Methodology: A structured questionnaire consisted of total 27 open and closed ended questions were distributed among 200 first year and final year BDS students. The aim of questionnaire was to assess knowledge and attitude towards hepatitis B infection. The questions were divided into three different sections; Section A: Demographic Detail; Section B: Knowledge Questions and Section C: Attitude Questions. Results: Out of 200 distributed questionnaires 191 (95.5%) were collected and analyzed. The most of the participants were females 149 (78%) students and the number of male students was only 42 (22%) with male to female ratio 1:3.5. The age of the participants ranged from 17-25 years (mean age: 21.4 years). Among 191 participants 99 (52%) students were from first year BDS class and 92 (48%) from final year BDS class. The majority of study participants (73%) had adequate knowledge on hepatitis B infection and its mode of transmission. However, results revealed that there are still misinterpretations regarding the attitudes of participants towards hepatitis B infected patients and only 44% participants have adequate concept regarding this. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the overall level of knowledge about hepatitis B infection among the first year and final year BDS students is fairly satisfactory. However, there are still misconceptions regarding the attitudes, which reflect the wrong impression of the disease among students. This calls for well-structured health education programs stressing on such misconceptions.