Perception and Attitude of Dental Students towards Tobacco Cessation Counselling in Dental Practice

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Use of tobacco is one of the most significant and serious public health issues facing the world today.

AIM: The main aim of the study is to assess dental student’s  perception and attitude on anti-tobacco counselling.

OBJECTIVE: The study is conducted to understand the knowledge, effectiveness of the counselling and how they treated themselves as a counselor and the barriers faced by them.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 17 item questionnaire was collected through google forms and circulated among 151 dental students residing in Chennai. Collected responses were analysed through SPSS software version 23. Pearson chi square test was done to assess the association between occupation and whether dental students were aware of the “5 A’s” and the “5 R’s” protocol of tobacco cessation counselling.

RESULTS: From the study results, most of the participants belonged to the 18-25 age group and were dental undergraduates. 49.7% of the participants were aware of 5A’s and 5R’s protocol for tobacco cessation and 37.1% of the participants have used 5A’s and 5 R's protocol for tobacco cessation. From this, Most of them were aware about the  “5 A’s” and the “5 R’s” protocol of tobacco cessation counselling. Pearson chi square test value shows  p value is 0.02( p value<0.05). Hence, it is statistically significant. 

CONCLUSION: The dental students in our study were in general agreement that tobacco cessation counselling is within the scope and responsibility of the dental profession and that such counseling can be effective