title: Awareness of droplet and airborne isolation precautions among dental health professionals during the outbreak of corona virus infection in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study aimed to determine knowledge, attitude and practice of airborne and droplet isolation precautions among Dental Health Professionals (DHPs) (dental students, interns, practitioners and auxiliaries) during the outbreak of MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), corona virus infection in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 406 dental health professionals (DHPs) working in selected dental facilities in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia during the outbreak of MERS (April-June 2013). A structured, close-ended, self-administered questionnaire explored the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards droplet and isolation precautions. Collected data was subjected to descriptive statistics to express demographic information, mean knowledge score, mean attitude score and practice score of DHPs. Inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis tests, p < 0.05) were used to examine differences between study variables. Spearman's rho correlation was used to identify the association between the knowledge-attitude, knowledge-practice, and attitude-practice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A response rate of rate of 90.22% (406 out of 452) was obtained. The mean scores of knowledge, attitude and practice were 10.61 ± 1.19, 50.54 ± 7.53 and 8.50 ± 2.14 respectively. Spearman's correlation test revealed a significant linear positive correlation between knowledge and attitude (r-0.501,P- 0.01), knowledge and practice (r-0.185,P-0.01) and attitude and practice (r-0.351,P- 0.01) of DHPs about airborne isolation precautions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dental health professionals considered in the present study showed good knowledge, positive attitude and good practice towards droplet and airborne isolation precautions during outbreak of MERS.Key words:Knowledge, attitude, practice, droplet, airborne, precaution, dental professionals.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Dentistry, Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry And Pharmacy, An-namuthajiya Campus, P. O Box: 84891, Riyadh 11681, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohammad-Abdul
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Baseer
authors.affiliation: Lecturer, Department of Preventive Dentistry, Riyadh Colleges Of Dentistry And Pharmacy, An-namuthajiya Campus, P. O Box: 84891, Riyadh 11681, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Shahzeb-Hasan
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ansari
authors.affiliation: Post-Graduate student, Department of Restorative Dentistry, An-namuthajiya Campus, P. O Box: 84891, Riyadh 11681, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Sultan-Saleh
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: AlShamrani
authors.affiliation: General Dental practitioner, An-namuthajiya Campus, P. O Box: 84891, Riyadh 11681, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Abdul-Rahman
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Alakras
authors.affiliation: General Dental practitioner, An-namuthajiya Campus, P. O Box: 84891, Riyadh 11681, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Raif
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mahrous
authors.affiliation: General Dental practitioner, Department of Restorative Dentistry, An-namuthajiya Campus, P. O Box: 84891, Riyadh 11681, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Abdul-Majeed
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Alenazi