title: Awareness, knowledge, and attitude of dentistry students in Kerman towards evidence-based dentistry.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Evidence-based care helps dentists provide quality dental services to patients, and such care is based on the use of reliable information about treatment and patient care from a large number of papers, books, and published textbooks. This study aimed to determine the knowledge, awareness, and attitude of dentistry students towards evidence-based dentistry.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study, all dentistry students who were studying in their sixth semester and higher in the Kerman School of Dentistry (n = 73) were studied. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 17 and the independent-samples t-tests and the ANOVA test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The means of the students' knowledge, awareness, and attitude scores were 29.2 ± 10.8, 29.9 ± 8.12 and 44.5 ± 5.3, respectively. Among demographic variables, only the number of semesters showed a significant difference with knowledge, awareness, and attitude of dentistry students toward evidence-based dentistry (p = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to the results of this study, knowledge and awareness of dentistry students at Kerman University of Medical Sciences towards evidence-based dentistry were average and have a neutral attitude. Thus, providing necessary training in this regard will cause promoting the knowledge, awareness, and improved attitudes of dentistry students.
authors.affiliation: Modeling in Health Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Arezoo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sarani
authors.affiliation: Modeling in Health Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Melika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarani
authors.affiliation: Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Esmaeli
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Abdar
authors.affiliation: Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra Esmaeili
authors.initials: ZE
authors.lastname: Abdar
keywords: attitude; awareness; evidence-based dentistry; knowledge