The Effect of Continuing Education on Dental Hygienists' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Human Papillomavirus Related Oropharyngeal Cancer.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect a continuing education (CE) course had on dental hygienists' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding human papillomavirus (HPV) related oropharyngeal cancer (OPC). A two-group, experimental post-test only design was used for this study. Randomly selected, licensed dental hygienists in the state of Florida, were recruited by email and assigned to either an experimental or control group. An investigator designed, questionnaire was developed and tested for validity and reliability. The experimental group received a one-hour web-based CE course on HPV related OPC. Six weeks later, a post-test questionnaire was administered to the experimental and control groups via an online platform, Qualtrics®. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Out of 302 dental hygienists who agreed to participate, 133 completed the study for a participation rate of 44.0%. The knowledge score for the experimental group was 72.6% while the control group scored 58.4%. Results demonstrated statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of knowledge (F=33.81, df=1, =0.00) and attitudes (F=13.91, df=1, =0.00). No differences were found in oral examination procedures; however, statistically significant differences (F=7.47, df=1, =0.007) were noted for items related to HPV specific examination practices between the two groups. Additional research is needed to identify what specific types of educational interventions are effective in increasing the HPV-related OPC knowledge and practice behaviors of dental hygienists.