Knowledge and practice of hand hygiene among dental undergraduates: a cross-sectional study / Khairun Nisa’ Badrul Hisham ... [et al.]

Objectives: (1) To decipher the level of knowledge of hand hygiene among undergraduate dental students, (2) to assess the practice regarding hand hygiene among undergraduate dental students and (3) to identify the correlation between level of knowledge and practice of hand hygiene in clinical settings among undergraduate dental students. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate dental students from year 3 to year 5. Both validated self-administered questionnaires on hand hygiene knowledge by World Health Organization and questionnaire on hand hygiene practice were distributed to respective class representatives. Data on demographic characteristics were also collected. Prevalence was determined by descriptive statistics. Pearson’s correlation test was used to check the association between knowledge level and practice of hand hygiene. Results: Two hundred and fiftytwo subjects comprising of 87.7% females and 12.3% males were recruited. Response rate was 100%. Majority of respondents (74.6%) had good knowledge level of hand hygiene while 25.4% had moderate knowledge level. 100% of respondents had good practices of hand hygiene as they follow ≥50% in line with the recommended guideline. Level of knowledge were found to have weak correlation to practice of hand hygiene in clinical settings (r= -0.354, p<0.001). Conclusion: Level of hand hygiene knowledge slightly influences the practice of hand hygiene in the form of negative correlation. Although respondents had good knowledge, there might be other external factors which influences the practice, such as lack of time and high patient workload. Further qualitative study should be conducted to elucidate other factors influencing the practice of hand hygiene among undergraduate dental students.