Awareness and attitudes toward hepatitis B among Malaysian dentists.
A questionnaire was mailed to 1217 dentists whose names appear in the Dentist Register of 1987 in order to assess their awareness and acceptance of hepatitis B vaccine and their pattern of glove usage. Almost all the respondents (99.6%) were aware of the availability of the hepatitis B vaccine yet only 44.8% have received the vaccine. This is in spite of the fact that the majority (61.2%) of the vaccine non-acceptors have no reservations concerning the vaccine. About 71% and 63% of the vaccine-acceptors and non-acceptors respectively believed that the risk of their contracting hepatitis B was high or very high. About 22% of the vaccine non-acceptors never used gloves when treating patients as compared to 9% among vaccine acceptors. Overall, about 78% of the respondents have experienced needleprick injuries in the 3 years preceding the survey.
Razak
I A
IA
Department of Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Latifah
R J
RJ
Nasruddin
J
J
Esa
R
R
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods; D003815:Dentists; D005932:Gloves, Surgical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014611:Vaccination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines
D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines