Hand washing knowledge, attitudes and practices among dental students

Abstract

Based on the benefits of hand washing, the study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of dental students with regard to hand hygiene in dental practice. This is a cross-sectional study of the KAP type conducted among 251 dental students in clinical training in the faculty of dentistry in Rabat. From both gender, the average age of students was 22-year-old. The KAP questionnaire contained 20 questions developed to obtain information on the socio-demographic characteristics of dental students as well as their knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding hand hygiene. The collected data used a WHO hand hygiene questionnaire - revised edition 2009 and analysed using Jamovi 2.2.5 statistical software. In this study, the majority of participants (74.1%) had a low level of knowledge about hand hygiene and a high level at 1.2%. The level of attitude was found to be low at 51% and high at only 2%. The level of hand hygiene practice was high at 2.4% and almost the majority of our participants (63.7%) were found with a low level of practice. The students' knowledge, attitudes and practices were low overall. These results suggest that systematic and supported education is needed in the future to increase their knowledge, attitudes and practice.