Gupta Nidhi, Randhawa Ravneet Kaur, Thakar Sahil, Bansal Mohit, Gupta Preety, Arora Vikram
Department of Public Health Dentistry, Swami Devi Dyal Hospital and Dental College, Barwala, Panchkula, Haryana, India.
Niger Postgrad Med J. 2016 Jan-Mar;23(1):33-7. doi: 10.4103/1117-1936.180179.
Zika virus (ZIKV), a vector-borne virus affecting a large number of people, has today become a major public health concern in the developed and developing countries worldwide.
The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge of ZIKV among dental practitioners residing in Tricity area (Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali), India.
A total of 412 private dental practitioners were randomly sampled of whom 254 (61.6%) responded to participate in this cross-sectional survey. A self-structured, closed-ended questionnaire was administered to each participant to record demographic and professional characteristics followed by their knowledge regarding ZIKV. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS Version 20 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY). The results were expressed in percentages. Multivariable linear regression analysis was carried out to assess the association of participant's demographics and professional characteristics with knowledge.
The sample consisted of 152 (59.9%) male and 102 (40.1%) female practitioners. Majority of the practitioners belonged to the age group of 25-34 years (66.1%). High knowledge was reported by only 38.2% of the practitioners. A statistically significant difference was seen when mean knowledge scores were compared with the qualification of the participants (P = 0.04), with postgraduates having more knowledge than graduates regarding ZIKV. Most of the knowledge of the practitioners came from television (37.8%) while journals only represented 4.7% of the total information gained.
ZIKV infection, a new public health emergency, needs to be addressed urgently. All health care professionals should have adequate knowledge of the virus and be conversant with necessary precautionary measures to be taken making it imperative that dental practitioners strive to continually update their knowledge from time to time.
寨卡病毒（ZIKV）是一种通过媒介传播的病毒，感染了大量人群，如今已成为全球发达国家和发展中国家主要的公共卫生问题。
本研究旨在评估居住在印度特里奇地区（昌迪加尔、潘切库拉和莫哈利）的牙科从业者对寨卡病毒的了解情况。
随机抽取了412名私人牙科从业者，其中254人（61.6%）响应参与了这项横断面调查。向每位参与者发放一份自行编制的封闭式问卷，记录其人口统计学和专业特征，随后了解他们对寨卡病毒的知识。使用SPSS 20版软件（IBM公司，纽约州阿蒙克）进行统计分析。结果以百分比表示。进行多变量线性回归分析以评估参与者的人口统计学和专业特征与知识之间的关联。
样本包括152名（59.9%）男性和102名（40.1%）女性从业者。大多数从业者年龄在25 - 34岁之间（66.1%）。只有38.2%的从业者报告具有较高的知识水平。将平均知识得分与参与者的学历进行比较时，发现存在统计学显著差异（P = 0.04），研究生对寨卡病毒的了解比本科生更多。从业者的大部分知识来自电视（37.8%），而期刊仅占所获信息总量的4.7%。
寨卡病毒感染是一种新的公共卫生突发事件，需要紧急应对。所有医护人员都应具备关于该病毒的足够知识，并熟悉需要采取的必要预防措施，这使得牙科从业者必须努力不断更新自己的知识。
