Knowledge and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS among dental students of Jazan University, Kingdom Saudi Arabia

Objectives: To evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of dental students at Jazan University, Saudi Arabia; compare the differences in HIV/AIDS related knowledge and attitudes between the genders and years of study. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted among dental students of Jazan University (N = 208; Response rate = 88.1%). Results: Most of the students (93%) knew ''HIV/AIDS patients can infect dental workers" and 14% were unaware of the fact that HIV/AIDS patients can be diagnosed with oral manifestations. Less than half the subjects (47.6%) were confident on their ability to safely treat HIV/AIDS patients and only 28.8% of the study population believed that their knowledge about infection control is enough to treat HIV/AIDS patients. Males and 4th year students had significantly greater HIV/AIDS related knowledge and attitudes than their comparative counterparts. Conclusions: HIV/AIDS related knowledge and attitudes in dental students of Jazan University are comparable to other studies from Saudi but are poor when compared to other countries. (C) 2017 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license