A study of knowledge, attitude and perception on e-cigarettes among oral health personnel in Perlis / Khairul Fikri Sebri

Background: E-cigarette use has become a worldwide phenomenon. Despite the fact, little has been published about oral health personnel's knowledge of their use. Objective: To determine the factors associated with the knowledge, attitude and perception among oral healthcare personnel on e-cigarettes in Perlis. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 164 oral health personnel in Perlis. The respondents were those who were working as dentists and dental therapists at government and private dental clinics in Perlis. Data was collected using validated self-administered questionnaires. Statistical significance was considered at p-value <0.05. Result: Majority of the respondents were female (85.4%), aged below 30 (54.3%), working more than five years in service (43.3%) non-smoker (98.8%), had poor knowledge on health-related risks of vaping (65.9%), had more favourable attitude towards vaping (51.2%), and perceived vaping as harmful (71.3%). Factors that were significantly associated with perception towards health-related risks of vaping were occupation ( p=0.017), duration of working experience (p=0.025) and attitude (p<0.001). Conclusion: Oral health personnel in Perlis perceived vaping as harmful and had more favourable attitude towards vaping. However, the knowledge related to health-related risks of vaping was poor despite being oral health personnel, which reflects the need for more initiatives and syllabus modification during their study to create better awareness and knowledge about e-cigarettes.