Knowledge of COVID-19 in students of the Faculty of Dentistry, Universidad de El Salvador, 2020

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the knowledge of the students of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universidad de El Salvador about Covid-19 disease. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study carried out with 456 students in the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universidad de El Salvador in May 2020. An online survey designed in GoogleForms was developed. The questionnaire included a total of 26 multiple-choice questions divided into 3 parts. Data were analyzed in SPSS-26 software and included χ² test, Z test and dichotomous logistic regression analysis; CI=95%. Results: Of the 426 responses, 337 were female (73.9%), aged 21 to 25 years (44.39%), from the department of San Salvador (56.36%), mostly from the current semester I (27.63%). Significant differences were found between academic levels; comparisons of proportions on the level of knowledge of COVID-19 showed that students in academic cycles I, III and V obtained low-medium knowledge and students in academic cycles IX and XI had a higher proportion of high knowledge. The OR indicated that sex and age did not influence the type of knowledge and for the academic level it showed that the higher the academic cycle, the greater the knowledge. Conclusion: There was an optimal level of knowledge about general aspects of the disease. Significant differences were found between the different academic levels. It is evident that the higher the academic level, the greater the knowledge. The exception was cycle XIII which with 50% presented a low to medium knowledge in general.