Nationwide survey of fifth-year dental students' perceptions about tobacco prevention, control, and curriculum in India.

The objective of this study was to assess the tobacco cessation knowledge, attitudes, practices, and perceived barriers of dental interns (students in their last year of the five-year dental curriculum) in India as well as to assess the adequacy of training in tobacco use cessation (TUC) counselling. This was a cross-sectional questionnaire study conducted with 1,521 interns at fiftyone dental colleges of India selected by multistage random sampling. The survey instrument was a fifty-nine-item, self-structured, and self-administered questionnaire. Fifteen questions were about knowledge and attitudes, with twenty-two about practices, fifteen about barriers, and seven about curriculum adequacy; demographic data were also collected. The response rate was 99.7 percent. The results showed that 38.8 percent had knowledge, 30.8 percent had positive attitudes, 19.2 percent practiced TUC, 43 percent experienced barriers, and 85.2 percent agreed on receiving extensive curriculum on tobacco cessation. Only 1 percent were aware of the 5As, the 5Rs protocol, and the motivational interviewing technique of TUC. These respondents' knowledge, attitudes, and practices were below normative level, and they took a superficial approach to TUC. The perceived barriers were very high and included curriculum inadequacy. The results of this study help show there is an urgent need to revise the tobacco curriculum in dental schools in India to make students more confident to practice this aspect of dentistry independently.