Yazd Journal of Dental Research

Introduction: Hand hygiene is considered as the most important aspect to reduce the transmission of infection in healthcare settings. Therefore, the present study was accomplished to evaluate dentists, specialists and dental nurses’ knowledge and practice about hand hygiene in Yazd in 2011.

Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 192 general dentists, specialists and dental nurses were selected randomly in Yazd and their knowledge and practices of hand hygiene were assessed through a questionnaire, validity and reliability of the questionnaire wasapproved. This questionnaire consisted of 19 questions related to knowledge and 17 questions related to practice of hand hygiene.  Data were analyzed using SPSS.17 and Chi-Square test.

Results: In the present study, 91 general dentists (47.4%), 41 specialists (21.4%) and 60 dental nurses  (31.2%) participated. Their mean age was 32.58±7.22. The results showed that the majority of practicipants with knowledge (58.9%) and practice (74.5%) was moderate. Among these three occupational groups, there was no statistically significant differences observed in the level of knowledge (P-value =0.553) and practice (P-value = 0.679). The results revealed no statistically significant relationship between the level of knowledge and practice with age (P-value>0.05). There was statistically significant relationship was found between the level of knowledge, but not practice with gender (P-value=0.03).

Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the level of knowledge and practices of the participants in regard with hand hygiene was moderate therefore, the promotion of the health care providers knowledge seems to be necessitated via holding workshops.