STOMATOLOGY EDU JOURNAL

COMMUNITY DENTISTRY

Knowledge and attitudes towards Covid-19 vaccine among indian dentists

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25241/stomaeduj.2020.8(4).art.2

Abstract

Background Dental care workers are considered a susceptible group for Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus 2 infection (SARS-CoV-2). Although efficacious vaccines are now available for the prevention of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), their knowledge and attitude towards these vaccines are not clear.
Aim To assess the knowledge, perception, and attitudes of Indian dental professionals towards COVID-19 vaccines.
Methods An anonymous web-based survey of Indian dental practitioners and clinical dental students was conducted using a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire, to elicit data on the COVID-19 vaccine uptake, attitudes to the vaccine, and the general knowledge related to vaccination.
Results A total of 350 dental practitioners and clinical dental students/undergraduates participated in the study. The vast majority (90%) of the respondents’ perceived that they have adequate knowledge of the vaccine. There is a statistically significant association in the probability of uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine related to the level of knowledge on COVID-19 vaccine perceived by the dental practitioners in India.
Conclusions In general, the knowledge, perception and attitudes of Indian dental professionals on COVID-19 vaccines appear satisfactory, but there dental students appear to be hesitant in taking the vaccine. Data on the efficacy and the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines should be continuously promoted by the dental professional bodies to protect their fraternity.

Keywords

Community Dentistry; COVID-19; Dental Students; Indian Dentists; Knowledge.

GREEN OPEN ACCESS

The Stomatology Edu Journal (Stoma Edu J) is one of the first Green Open Access journals in the field of dental medicine, publishing well-established authors, but equally committed to encouraging early career researchers and professionals alike to publish their work after a non-partisan, objective, double-blind rigorous peer-reviewed process. The Stomatology Edu Journal (Stoma Edu J) is a Green Open Access journal accessible for free on the Internet, hence no processing, peer review fees or article publishing charges payable by the author are required. A Green Open Access (GOA) journal means that all content is freely available to the user or his/her institution without charge. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. Our aim is to publish in the shortest possible time frame and ensure the rapid dissemination of your work via our journal page, but also through our indexing partners…(read more)

STATEMENT

STOMATOLOGY EDU JOURNAL (Stoma Edu J) is a new international dental journal whose main purpose is to inform researchers, educators, graduates, postgraduates and practitioners about the latest trends in the field, which followed, would bring immediate and lasting benefits to the patients; and about opinions of the most authorized specialists on what is best in current practice, for the good of both, patient and dentist.
STOMATOLOGY EDU JOURNAL (Stoma Edu J) is a peer-reviewed, open access international dental journal to be database indexed, meant to contribute to the development and completion of the medical training of practitioners as Dr. Greene Vardiman Black stated: “the professional man has no right to be other than a continual student”.
Open access journal, means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.