Knowledge and attitude of patients presenting to a dental school clinic towards HIV/AIDS

Introduction: This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of patients presenting to dental school about the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 2017-2018. Materials and Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 450 patients presenting to dental school of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, International Campus, in 2017. The patients had a mean age of 33 years (range 11-66 years). The Farsi version of the international AIDS questionnaire with 18 questions (13 questions about knowledge and five questions about attitude) was used for data collection. Each correct response was allocated a score of 1. Regression analysis was used to assess the effect of age, sex, level of education and financial status on the knowledge and attitude scores. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to assess the correlation between knowledge and attitude scores. Results: The mean knowledge and attitude scores were 10.55 and 4.1, respectively. By an increase in the knowledge score, the attitude score significantly increased and vice versa (r=0.376, P 0.0001). Age, sex and financial status had no significant effect on knowledge about HIV/AIDS, and only the effect of level of education was significant (P=0.0001). Age had no significant effect on attitude score but gender (P=0.001), level of education (P=0.001) and financial status (P=0.038) significantly affected the attitude score. The attitude score was higher in females. Discussion: In general, participants had favorable knowledge and attitude towards AIDS. However, the knowledge and attitude of the Iranian population should be further enhanced in this respect.