Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Oral health practitioners’ knowledge, attitude, and awareness about coronavirus: A systematic review and meta‑analysis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Abdosaleh Jafari
. Mohammadtaghi Mohammadpour 1
. Arash Ghanbarzadegan 2
. Giampiero Rossi‑Fedele 3
. Peivand Bastani

1 Department of Health Care Management and Health Economics, Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran,

2 Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, Adelaide Dental School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5000 SA, Australia,

3 Department of Endodontics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Adelaide Dental School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Oral health practitioners are at the frontline of infection, particularly with respiratory
viruses such as the novel coronavirus. Knowledge, awareness, and attitude of these workers are
considered important in preventing and controlling the outbreak. This study aims to review the
literature 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, and
ProQuest up to May 6, 2020. All the knowledge, attitude, and practice studies on oral health workers
about respiratory contagious outbreak the same as severe acute respiratory syndrome, Middle East
respiratory 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 oral
health practitioners had a high level of awareness about virus transmission modes (95% confidence
interval [CI]: 78.6%–92.4%; P < 0.001). 80.7% of the oral health practitioners gave right answers to the
questions related to virus transmission modes (95% CI: 69.9%–91.4%; P < 0.001), and 79.9% of the
dentists 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 diseases
as well as COVID‑19. The present results can shed further light for policymakers to support the
best evidence medical education for all health‑care workers the same as oral health practitioners.
Preventing the dissemination of misinformation along with preparing comprehensive guidelines can
be considered by the oral health policymakers, particularly in the more infected regions.

Keywords

COVID‑19
dentist
health promotion
knowledge
attitude
and practice study
meta‑analysis
oral health practitioner
respiratory contagious outbreaks
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2021
Pages 1-6

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