Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Dentists Towards Patients With HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C Infections

Dental practitioners can be exposed to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) during routine work. In this study, the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the dentists in Zahedan were examined on patients with HIV, HBV, and HCV infections. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 dentists in Zahedan in 2013. A reliable and valid questionnaire on knowledge, attitude and performance of the dentists toward the infectious diseases of HIV, hepatitis B and C was distributed to all dentists who worked in Zahedan. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent sample t-test and Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The mean score of the knowledge, attitude and practice of the dentists were 51.45 ± 3.16 out of 63, 20.22 ± 3.74 out of 39 and 64.41 ± 4.49 out of 72, respectively. Most of the participants (95%) believed that the fear and concern of the transmission of HIV, HBV and HCV infections are among the reasons of refusing the infected patients. The relationship between demographic variables and the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of dentists was not statistically significant. Although the dentists had a proper knowledge in the field of transmission of HIV, HBV, and HCV infections, fear and concern of being infected make them to refuse these patients. Therefore, training dentists to improve their attitudes toward treatment of these patients is necessary.