Assessing Insights and Practices among Graduates to Signify the Need for Dental Ergonomics within the Dental Curriculum: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Abstract Objectives The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices of ergonomics among dental graduates in Karachi. Materials and Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Altamash Institute of Dental Medicine from December 2019 to April 2020. The study was performed among 174 dental graduates (house officers) in Karachi, using a modified, validated, closed-ended questionnaire. For statistical analysis, SPSS software (version 21) was used for descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequencies. The tests applied were independent t-test and Pearson’s correlation to compare and check the correlation between the variables. The p-value used was ≤ 0.05. Results Among 200 dental graduates, only 174 responses were analyzed in SPSS version 21. Females (78.2%) were more in number than males (21.8%), with most of them aged >23 years (59.1%). Of the study population, 78.7% graduates worked 4 to 6 hours per day, and more than half of the graduates (58%) did not do physical exercise outside work. Furthermore, we found that the majority of responders had a fair knowledge of ergonomic principles, where a total of 134 (77%) dental graduates had a positive attitude towards its implementation, however this was not reflected in their practices as 128 (73.6%) graduates has poor practices related to ergonomics. It was also found that knowledge and practices of ergonomics had a weak but significant correlation (r = 0.263, p = 0.001). Moreover, males were more positive about implementing and practicing ergonomics then females with a significant association (p = 0.001). Conclusions A majority of the dental graduates (house officers) in this present study had a reasonable knowledge of ergonomics and its principles also showed positivity but an only small number of them practiced dental ergonomics. This study recommends the need for including dental ergonomics in the academic curriculum of clinical years of both dental undergraduate and postgraduate studies and also conducts workshops to develop faculty to reinforce its importance.