Knowledge and awareness of medical doctors, medical students and nurses about dentistry in Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: Various studies have reported poor awareness and knowledge of dentistry in the Nigerian population. There is, however, paucity of information assessing the knowledge and awareness of medical doctors/students and nurses about dentistry. The present study is aimed at determining the know...

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Autores principales: Oyetola, Elijah Olufemi, Oyewole, Taiwo, Adedigba, Micheal, Aregbesola, Stephen Tunde, Umezudike, Kehinde, Adewale, Adedotun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The African Field Epidemiology Network 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4894672/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27303588
http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2016.23.172.7696
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author Oyetola, Elijah Olufemi
Oyewole, Taiwo
Adedigba, Micheal
Aregbesola, Stephen Tunde
Umezudike, Kehinde
Adewale, Adedotun
author_facet Oyetola, Elijah Olufemi
Oyewole, Taiwo
Adedigba, Micheal
Aregbesola, Stephen Tunde
Umezudike, Kehinde
Adewale, Adedotun
author_sort Oyetola, Elijah Olufemi
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Various studies have reported poor awareness and knowledge of dentistry in the Nigerian population. There is, however, paucity of information assessing the knowledge and awareness of medical doctors/students and nurses about dentistry. The present study is aimed at determining the knowledge and awareness of medical doctors/students and nurses about dentistry. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaires were randomly distributed among medical doctors/students, and nurses of Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospitals’ Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Information collected using the questionnaire included participants’ biodata, questions evaluating dental awareness, knowledge of systemic and oral health connections as well as referral practices. The data analysis was done with STATA version 11 software. RESULTS: A total of 300 questionnaires were randomly distributed among doctors/students and nurses, 206 were returned (response rate of 69%). Of the returned questionnaires, 129(63%) were males and 77(37%) were females. There were 42 medical doctors, 49 nurses and 115 medical students. The mean age of the participants was 26.7 years (SD 5.2). Majority (99.5%) was aware of dental profession, but 92% had never referred patients for dental consultation. One third (31%) of medical doctors believed that Ludwig angina was a cardiac disease. A large proportion of the respondents (61%) see no need for routine dental visit while 27% would want to visit the dentist only when they had a dental complaint. CONCLUSION: Although a large percentage of the participants claimed to be aware of dentistry, our findings revealed low level of knowledge and attitude to Dentistry. Efforts should be made towards closing this knowledge gap to achieve efficient oral health.
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spelling pubmed-48946722016-06-14 Knowledge and awareness of medical doctors, medical students and nurses about dentistry in Nigeria Oyetola, Elijah Olufemi Oyewole, Taiwo Adedigba, Micheal Aregbesola, Stephen Tunde Umezudike, Kehinde Adewale, Adedotun Pan Afr Med J Research INTRODUCTION: Various studies have reported poor awareness and knowledge of dentistry in the Nigerian population. There is, however, paucity of information assessing the knowledge and awareness of medical doctors/students and nurses about dentistry. The present study is aimed at determining the knowledge and awareness of medical doctors/students and nurses about dentistry. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaires were randomly distributed among medical doctors/students, and nurses of Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospitals’ Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Information collected using the questionnaire included participants’ biodata, questions evaluating dental awareness, knowledge of systemic and oral health connections as well as referral practices. The data analysis was done with STATA version 11 software. RESULTS: A total of 300 questionnaires were randomly distributed among doctors/students and nurses, 206 were returned (response rate of 69%). Of the returned questionnaires, 129(63%) were males and 77(37%) were females. There were 42 medical doctors, 49 nurses and 115 medical students. The mean age of the participants was 26.7 years (SD 5.2). Majority (99.5%) was aware of dental profession, but 92% had never referred patients for dental consultation. One third (31%) of medical doctors believed that Ludwig angina was a cardiac disease. A large proportion of the respondents (61%) see no need for routine dental visit while 27% would want to visit the dentist only when they had a dental complaint. CONCLUSION: Although a large percentage of the participants claimed to be aware of dentistry, our findings revealed low level of knowledge and attitude to Dentistry. Efforts should be made towards closing this knowledge gap to achieve efficient oral health. The African Field Epidemiology Network 2016-04-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4894672/ /pubmed/27303588 http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2016.23.172.7696 Text en © Elijah Olufemi Oyetola et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Oyetola, Elijah Olufemi
Oyewole, Taiwo
Adedigba, Micheal
Aregbesola, Stephen Tunde
Umezudike, Kehinde
Adewale, Adedotun
Knowledge and awareness of medical doctors, medical students and nurses about dentistry in Nigeria
title Knowledge and awareness of medical doctors, medical students and nurses about dentistry in Nigeria
title_full Knowledge and awareness of medical doctors, medical students and nurses about dentistry in Nigeria
title_fullStr Knowledge and awareness of medical doctors, medical students and nurses about dentistry in Nigeria
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge and awareness of medical doctors, medical students and nurses about dentistry in Nigeria
title_short Knowledge and awareness of medical doctors, medical students and nurses about dentistry in Nigeria
title_sort knowledge and awareness of medical doctors, medical students and nurses about dentistry in nigeria
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4894672/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27303588
http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2016.23.172.7696
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