Knowledge, attitude and practices of Saudi dental hygiene students towards novel corona virus disease (COVID-19): A nation-wide study.

Introduction: Healthcare workers involved in procedures that generate aerosol or handling patient specimens are associated with a high possibility of COVID-19 infection. Thus, it is very important for the health workers to understand the knowledge related to transmission, prevention and protocols of COVID-19.

Methods: Cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted on dental hygiene students in Saudi Arabia. An online version of pre-tested and validated questionnaire was used to test the KAP for COVID 19.

Results: The mean score for knowledge-related questions was found to be 2.91 ± 1.59, attitude-related questions to be 2.84 ± 1.41 and for practice-related questions to be 4.20 ± 1.36. After converting the scores into percentages, any score <60% was categorized as poor score, 60%-80% as average score and >80% as good score. Students showed poor knowledge and attitude towards COVID-19. But the practice of dental hygiene students towards COVID-19 was found to be good with the score of 83.4%.

Conclusion: The outcome of this cross-sectional study shows that most of dental hygiene students studying in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are following good practices towards COVID-19 inspite of having poor knowledge and attitude.