TY - JOUR PY - 2023// TI - Dental students' perceptions regarding bioterrorism; a cross-sectional study JO - Archives of academic emergency medicine A1 - Bahanan, Lina A1 - Alsharif, Maha A1 - Al Qhtani, Omar A1 - Al Juhani, Ahmad A1 - Samman, Meyassara SP - e40 EP - e40 VL - 11 IS - 1 N2 - INTRODUCTION: During the COVID-19 outbreak, dental professionals have demonstrated their importance in combating mass casualty incidents. This study aimed to understand dental students' perceptions of their potential roles in a bioterrorism attack.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study used a self-administered anonymous questionnaire, which was sent to all dental students and interns at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. Bivariate and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to assess dental students' willingness to provide care during a bioterrorism attack, knowledge regarding bioterrorism and total number of roles a dentist should play during an attack.

RESULTS: This study included 472 dental students and interns. The mean knowledge score regarding bioterrorism was 3.3 ± 1.9 out of 5. A large majority of the respondents (83.8%) were willing to provide care during a bioterrorism attack. Students with a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 4.5-5 were more likely to indicate that a dental professional should take on more roles during a bioterrorism attack than those with a GPA of 2.5-2.99. Fourth- and fifth-year dental students had lower knowledge scores regarding bioterrorism than dental interns (B: -0.71; SE: 0.30; 95% CI: -1.3--0.1 and B: -0.68; SE: 0.30; 95% CI: -1.3- -0.1, respectively).

CONCLUSION: Despite the fact that dental curricula do not cover topics related to bioterrorism, most students would be willing to provide care under bioterrorism conditions. There is wide agreement among the students regarding the need to add bioterrorism-related educations to dental curricula.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 2645-4904 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.22037/aaem.v11i1.2018 ID - ref1 ER -