Impact of COVID-19 on Patients’ Attitudes and Perceptions of Dental Health Services: A Questionnaire Based Study in an Australian University Dental Clinic

Azam, Hashim, Agilan, Niesha, Pitigala, Pulina, Gupta, Anjaneya, Fung, Julian, Miller, Catherine M., Sharma, Oyelola, and Sharma, Dileep (2022) Impact of COVID-19 on Patients’ Attitudes and Perceptions of Dental Health Services: A Questionnaire Based Study in an Australian University Dental Clinic. Healthcare, 10 (9). 1747.

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Abstract

COVID-19, the global pandemic, has significantly interrupted the provision of oral health care to many individuals. This study aims to evaluate patients’ attitudes to and perceptions of dental visits in the COVID-19 pandemic and assess if socio-economic status influences their perception of risk associated with dental visits. Patients attending the dental clinic were invited to participate in this study by completing a questionnaire administered in August 2021. Composite indicators for access, attitude, perception and socio-economic status were created based on subsets of questions. A total of 247 completed questionnaires were obtained. Analysis was performed with the perception, attitude and access indicators against the socio-economic status indicator. This study found that there is a statistically significant difference between socio-economic groups and their attitudes and perceptions around dental health care services in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals from lower socio-economic status groups were less influenced by the pandemic. Participants from higher socio-economic status groups were found to be more cautious around COVID-19 and its risks.

Item ID: 76059
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2227-9032
Keywords: COVID-19; dental health services; public health; questionnaire; attitudes; university dental clinic
Copyright Information: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Date Deposited: 15 Sep 2022 03:55
FoR Codes: 32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3203 Dentistry > 320399 Dentistry not elsewhere classified @ 50%
42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420606 Social determinants of health @ 50%
SEO Codes: 20 HEALTH > 2002 Evaluation of health and support services > 200201 Determinants of health @ 50%
20 HEALTH > 2003 Provision of health and support services > 200399 Provision of health and support services not elsewhere classified @ 50%
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