Health Literacy Status and Preventive Behavioral Perception of Dental Patients Regarding COVID-19 Pandemic in Selected Tertiary Hospitals of Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 has declared a public health emergency as a global crisis. In this situation dental patients are at high risk because of direct person to person transmission. Dental treatment requires very close contact elsewhere there are some other factors such as waiting room, ventilation system of hospital, gathering and so on which make the condition more critical. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the health literacy status and preventive behavioral perception of dental patients regarding the COVID-19. Methods: Data were collected from total 342 respondents by self-administered semi-structured questionnaire and face to face interview was conducted. Systematic random sampling was done in Dhaka Dental College Hospital and Chattogram International Dental College Hospital during data collection. Informed written consent was taken from each participants. Frequencies, percentages, charts, and diagrams were used to present the analysis, which was carried out using SPSS. Results: In this study, majority of dental patients were within 25-34 years age. Mean (±SD) age was 36(±13.32) years. Maximum patients (85.1%) had more accurate health literacy related perception regarding COVID-19 and there were significant association between educational status, occupational status of the dental patients and their health literacy status (p <0.05) regarding COVID-19. More than 80% patients were aware about preventive aspects of COVID-19 and had good preventive behavior related perception but they expressed that it was not possible to maintain every precautionary behavior in reality. About 53.8% agreed staying at home would play a significant role in preventing COVID-19 but a big portion disagreed with this. Approximately 15% disagreed with the issue that keeping a physical distance in public places and avoiding social events reduces the spread of novel corona viruses. Conclusion: In this study a significant portion of good health literacy related and preventive behavioral perception of dental patients regarding COVID-19 was recorded. However a comprehensive awareness-raising program should be continued to hold this optimistic perception and inspire them to practice this perception in reality. Bangladesh Medical Res Counc Bull 2022; 48(3): 236-243