Attitude and awareness of medical and dental students towards collaboration between medical and dental practice in Hong Kong.
BACKGROUND
Medical-dental collaboration is essential for improving resource efficiency and standards of care. However, few studies have been conducted on it. This study aimed to investigate the attitude and awareness of medical and dental students about collaboration between medical and dental practices in Hong Kong.


METHODS
All medical and dental students in Hong Kong were invited to complete a questionnaire survey at their universities, hospitals and residential halls. It contained 8 questions designed to elicit their attitudes about the collaboration between medical and dental practice. Students were also asked about their awareness of the collaboration between dentistry and medicine. The questionnaires were directly distributed to medical and dental students. The finished questionnaires were immediately collected by research assistants on site.


RESULTS
A total of 1,857 questionnaires were distributed and 809 (44%) were returned. Their mean attitude score (SD) towards medical-dental collaboration was 6.37 (1.44). Most students (77%) were aware of the collaboration between medical and dental practice in Hong Kong. They considered that Ear, Nose & Throat, General Surgery and Family Medicine were the 3 most common medical disciplines which entailed collaboration between medical and dental practice.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the medical and dental students in general demonstrated a good attitude and awareness of the collaboration between medical and dental practice in Hong Kong. This established an essential foundation for fostering medical-dental collaboration, which is vital to improving resource efficiency and standards of care.
Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. zhangsn2000@gmail.com.
Shinan
S
Zhang
Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. hrdplcm@hku.hk.
Edward C M
EC
Lo
Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. chchu@hku.hk.
Chun-Hung
CH
Chu
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001364:Awareness; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003729:Dental Care; D003813:Dentistry; D004497:Education, Dental; D004501:Education, Medical; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D013502:General Surgery; D006304:Health Status; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D009909:Oral Health; D010036:Otolaryngology; D011364:Professional Practice; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult