Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Saudi Dental Hygiene Students Towards Novel Corona Virus Disease (Covid-19): An Online Survey

Purpose: Healthcare workers involved in procedures, that generate aerosol or handling patient specimens, are associated with a high possibility of COVID-19 infection. Thus, this study was conducted to identify dental hygiene students' knowledge of various guidelines related to COVID-19, their attitude towards COVID-19, and to assess their practices regarding COVID-19 recommendations. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was performed. All Dental hygiene students in Saudi Arabia were invited to participate in this study. Interns were excluded. An online version of pre-tested and validated questionnaire was used to test the KAP for COVID 19. Results: The mean score for knowledge related questions was found to be 2.91 ± 1.59, attitude related questions to be 2.84 ± 1.41 and for practice related questions to be 4.20 ±1.36. After converting the scores into percentages, any score <60% was categorized as poor score, 60-80% as average score and >80% as good score. Regarding the knowledge of Dental hygiene students towards COVID-19, they had poor knowledge with the score of 57.8%. Similarly, the attitude of Dental hygiene students towards COVID-19 was poor as the score was 56.5%. But the practice of Dental hygiene students towards COVID-19 was found to be good with the score of 83.4%. Conclusion: The outcome of this cross-sectional study shows that most of dental hygiene students studying in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are following good practices toward COVID-19 inspite of having poor knowledge and attitude.