Knowledge attitude and practices regarding hepatitis b infection among dental undergraduates, interns and postgraduates students: a cross sectional survey

Background: Medical and dental professionals are at high risk of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. HBV infection can be transmitted in dental practice by skin prick with infected, contaminated needles and syringes e.t.c. Limited knowledge of dental students at risk of HBV infection is the greatest obstacle in implementation of infection preventive practices. Therefore the present study was aimed to assess the knowledge attitude and practices (KAP) regarding Hepatitis B among dental undergraduates, interns and postgraduates students. Method: A cross sectional survey was conducted among dental students of HP Government Dental College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. The number of questions related to knowledge, attitude and practice was 23, 6 and 11, respectively. Students who were present on that particular day and willing to participate were included in the study. Result: A total of 134 students participated in the study, which included 64 undergraduates, 41 interns and 29 postgraduates. Of these 47 students were male and 87 students were female. Assessment of knowledge questions was done by scoring 1 for correct response and 0 for incorrect response. They were later graded according to score as less than 12 as poor, 12-17 as average and more than 17 as good. In this particular study the overall knowledge about hepatitis B among various years is good (mean score = 19; SD = 2.017). The level of knowledge regarding HBV was good among interns and postgraduates when compared to undergraduates. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated a satisfactory level of knowledge and attitude of dentists about HBV infections, but some gaps were observed, suggesting that higher knowledge level of dentists plays a very important role in forming the attitudes and practices regarding patients with HBV.