Introduction: Dentistry is a susceptible environment for infection because dental practitioners have direct contact with patients’ saliva and blood. In fact, dentists are at three to four times higher risk of exposure to hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) than the general population.
Objective: To assess the level of knowledge about and attitudes regarding HBV and HCV among dental students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Subjects and methods: This cross-sectional study assessed the knowledge about and attitudes toward HBV and HCV among 453 clinical dental students in Jeddah public and private colleges. A self-administrated, hard copy questionnaire included four sections with a total of 29 questions was utilized for data collection.
Results: The mean total correct answers of participants were 5.35 out of 9 questions, with a standard deviation of ± 1.54. The mean of attitude questions ranged from 2.04 ± 1.18 to 3.9 ± 1.5. By comparing total knowledge scores to GPAs, it was noticed that students with a 4.1 or greater GPA scored significantly better than others. The study showed that 53.33% of fourth-year students, 71.92% of fifth-year students, 78.03% of sixth-year students, and 76.47% of interns had been vaccinated.
Conclusions: It is recommended that more educational courses be included to improve dental students’ knowledge about HBV and HCV. In addition, colleges should enforce students to be vaccinated before admitting to clinics.
Impact Factor
2022: 6.012
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