02333nas a2200241   4500000000100000008004100001653001800042653004200060653002100102653002000123653003300143100001100176700001300187700001100200700001300211700001200224245008400236856007700320300001200397490000700409520166100416022001402077       2016                            d10aSocial stigma10aPublic health professionals education10aDental education10aData Collection10aCommunicable Disease Control1 aJain M1 aSharma A1 aJain V1 aVirjee K1 aSingh S00aKnowledge and Attitude about Leprosy among Indian Dental Students in Faridabad.  uhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4843386/pdf/jcdr-10-ZC48.pdf  aZC48-520 v103 a<p><strong>INTRODUCTION: </strong>Role of dentists in prevention and sustainable care of leprosy is known. Changing leprosy scenario has led to requirement of change in leprosy education. However, knowledge and attitude of dental students on leprosy remains unknown.</p>

<p><strong>AIM: </strong>Hence a study was conducted to assess knowledge and attitude of dental students about Leprosy.</p>

<p><strong>MATERIALS AND METHODS: </strong>A questionnaire based, cross-sectional survey was conducted among 350 undergraduate and the postgraduate dental students of two dental colleges in Faridabad, India. The score for knowledge ranged from 0 to 16 and scores for attitude ranged from 0 to 26. These scores were further coded as poor, fair and good.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Mean knowledge score for the sample was 7.64±3.23. A total of 32.29% participants were under poor knowledge category; 57.42% had fair knowledge about Leprosy while 10.29% had good knowledge. Mean attitude score was 15.5 ± 5.98. A total of 30.57% had poor attitude scores, 42.57% had fair scores while 26.86% had good attitude scores. Univariate analysis showed year of training to be a significant predictor for knowledge level (t=7.12; p&lt;0.001).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>The results indicate need for three important changes towards Leprosy in Dentistry. These changes are need for incorporation of leprosy education in Dentistry, need for incorporation of problem based as well as evidence based learning in Dentistry integrated with general health and need for reestablishing public health programs for Leprosy utilizing dental workforce.</p>
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