Open AccessEvaluating Knowledge, Awareness and Behaviour Among Dental Interns Regarding Ergonomics in Dentistry: A Cross-Sectional Survey
Author(s) -
Rebecca Andrew,
Sonia Narang,
Srishti Aggarwal,
S Thongam
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international healthcare research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2456-8090
DOI - 10.26440/ihrj/0407.10278
Subject(s) - logistic regression , descriptive statistics , cross sectional study , dentistry , medicine , pearson product moment correlation coefficient , test (biology) , statistical significance , psychology , association (psychology) , human factors and ergonomics , family medicine , poison control , environmental health , statistics , mathematics , paleontology , pathology , psychotherapist , biology
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are one of the main reasons that force dentists to retire early from their practice. AIM: To assess the knowledge, awareness and behaviour among dental Interns in central and southern India regarding Ergonomics in DentistryMATERIALS AND METHOD: This cross-sectional study collected data using a questionnaire (pre-tested and pre-validated) amongst dental interns studying in various dental colleges in and around Central India. Participation in the study was voluntary and the questionnaire was divided into 4 sections with a total of 22 close ended questions. Data was anlayzed using SPSS version 21.0; descriptive statistics were applied followed by the unpaired samples t-test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multivariate logistic regression.RESULTS: The study consisted of 800 dentists, with most having fair knowledge (50.1%) and awareness (49.7%) regarding proper ergonomic posture (knowledge scores showed a significant statistical association). Most interns reported that they sometimes (41.5%) practiced dentistry ergonomically, while only 5.5% reported doing it always (significant difference, p=0.01*). A positive, linear, great strength of association (r: +0.7) and a significant relationship (p = 0.04) was found between knowledge and awareness scores using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. CONCLUSION: Dental awareness programmes are advised to educate dentists about the impending threat of MSDs if dentistry is not practiced ergonomically.