COVID-19 outbreak: Knowledge, attitude, and practice among dental students in a tertiary care hospital: A cross-sectional study

Background: Dental care settings have the risk of COVID-19 infection due to the aerosols generated during procedures, handling of sharps, and proximity of the dentist to the patient's oropharyngeal region. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional online survey among undergraduate and postgraduate dental students studying in a tertiary care hospital employed a convenient snowball sampling technique. The survey instrument consisted of pretested and prevalidated questionnaire comprising demographic characteristics, 14 items on knowledge domain, 6 items on attitude domain, and 4 items on practice domain modified from a previously published questionnaire on COVID-19. Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20.0 to perform the Chi-square test, MannWhitney, KruskalWallis, Spearman's correlation, and linear regression analysis. Results: The study population comprised 79 (28.9%) males and 194 (71.1%) females, with approximately 53% belonging to the age group of <20 years. Based on our results, the majority of the general population had inadequate (42.1%) knowledge about the disease with a mean knowledge score was 22.82 ± 1.98. Conclusion: This study showed that the dental students had an inadequate level of knowledge and negative attitude in their outlook on overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. Various health education programs are necessary, particularly targeting students with lower knowledge regarding COVID-19 are essential for encouraging adequate knowledge, positive attitude, and maintain safe dental practices.