Abstract

ARRIETA VERGARA, Katherine; DIAZ CARDENAS, Shyrley  and  GONZALEZ MARTINEZ, Farith. Knowledge, attitudes and practices related to occupational accidents in dentistry. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2012, vol.38, n.4, pp.546-552. ISSN 0864-3466.

Introduction: both the use of sharp cutting instruments for dental training and the lack of experience of the students in properly handling them increase the risk of occupational accidents. Objective: to describe the occurrence of occupational accidents in dentistry students and its relationship with the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding the risks they are exposed to. Methods: the sample included 210 dentistry students, who were in pre-clinical and clinical practices in the University of Cartagena, during the first academic period of 2011. A structured survey to evaluate the study variables was used. Frequency and ratio distributions served to analyze data. The Chi square test was used to establish relationships between knowledge, attitudes and practices and the prevalence of occupational accidents and the socio demographic variables, assuming a significance limit of 0,05. Results: ninety five students (45.2 %) suffered occupational accidents; a good level of knowledge was found in 111 students (52.8 %); favorable attitudes were seen in 182 (86,6%) whereas 190 (90.4 %) students presented with negative practices. There was no statistically significant relationship between the occurrence of accidents and the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the students. Conclusions: the prevalence of occupational accidents is high, but unrelated to the knowledge, attitudes and practices, which allows assuming that healthy environment and culture are required to continue educating the students and ensuring compliance with the biosafety measures since the stage of student practices.

Keywords : occupational accidents; knowledge; practices; attitudes; exposure.

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