The Perception of COVID-19 among Italian Dentists: An Orthodontic Point of View

Stefano Martina, Alessandra Amato, Roberto Rongo, Mario Caggiano and Massimo Amato
Additional contact information
Stefano Martina: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry Scuola Medica Salernitana, University of Salerno, 84081 Baronissi, Italy
Alessandra Amato: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry Scuola Medica Salernitana, University of Salerno, 84081 Baronissi, Italy
Roberto Rongo: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry Scuola Medica Salernitana, University of Salerno, 84081 Baronissi, Italy
Mario Caggiano: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry Scuola Medica Salernitana, University of Salerno, 84081 Baronissi, Italy
Massimo Amato: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry Scuola Medica Salernitana, University of Salerno, 84081 Baronissi, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: COVID-19 has severely impacted dentists, who are at a great risk of infection. This study aimed to investigate if dentists are anxious about returning to their daily activities, and what the perception of the risk is for dentists and orthodontists regarding orthodontic procedures. An online questionnaire, including the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4), was sent to Italian dentists during the final days of the lockdown with items about anxiety, fear, distress, perceived risk for operators, and concerns about orthodontic patients caused by working during the COVID-19 outbreak. Data were analyzed with a chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. The level of significance was set as p < 0.05. A total of 349 dentists completed the survey, including 183 orthodontists. Returning to their daily work activity was a source of anxiety for 192 participants and this was associated with the level of distress (odds ratio (OR) = 3.7; p < 0.001). Most of the orthodontists (67.6%) thought that they would increase the number of working hours during the week (OR = 1.8; p = 0.007). Italian dentists were mostly scared to return to their daily activities because they considered their jobs a high risk to them and their families. Dentists with an exclusive/prevailing orthodontic activity were forced to increase their working day during the week.

Keywords: COVID-19; dentistry; orthodontics; anxiety; risk management; survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4384/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4384/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:12:p:4384-:d:373266

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().