Influence of information source regarding COVID-19 knowledge among the undergraduate dental students during the early lockdown: a multi-national study

S.K. Mallineni, S. Nuvvula, A.F. Ismail, S. Aldhuwayhi, S.A. Shaikh, Y. Deeban, V. Kumar, M.E. Almaz

Pediatric Dentistry, Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital, Ar Rayyan, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. drmallineni@gmail.com

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• Dentistry
• Infectious Diseases

OBJECTIVE: To assess the influence of information sources on the knowledge regarding COVID-19 among undergraduate dental students in India, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Turkey.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: An online questionnaire in a Google form link was circulated among the target population via various online platforms. It consisted of 14 close-ended questions assessing these students’ knowledge and source of COVID-19-related information. SPSS software version 21.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) was used to compute descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, independent t-test, and ANOVA tests for comparing various variables, and a p-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: The study yielded 809 responses from dental undergraduate students from India, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Turkey. Dental students from Turkey reported a higher mean knowledge score of 7.91±1.34 and 7.88±0.58 for Malaysian dental students. In contrast, the lower scores were achieved by Saudi Arabia (7.36±1.22) and India (7.37±1.21) dental students, and the findings were statistically significant (p<0.05). The study population used various sources to attain information regarding COVID-19. Most respondents (63.1%) utilized information regarding COVID-19 from multiple sources rather than single sources (36.9%).

CONCLUSIONS: Reliable and validated information sources resulted in higher knowledge scores. Turkey and Malaysia dental students reported a higher mean knowledge score and the lowest for Saudi Arabia and India dental students. There is increased popularity of social media platforms as information sources.

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