Author(s)

SRI SAKTHI DORAI KANNAN, VYSHIALI SIVARAM KUMAR, PRADEEP KUMAR RATHINAVELU, MEIGNANA ARUMUGHAM INDIRAN

Abstract

More than 2.6 billion people were affected by mass disasters in the last decade, which lead to mass casualties that can overwhelm local medical resources and prevent them from delivering comprehensive and definitive medical care. Awareness and training towards disaster management is essential for all in the health care delivery sector. India, has been vulnerable to natural disasters and manmade disasters from time to time. Being the second populous country in the world and dental surgeons forming a significant portion of an untapped health resource, assessment of awareness and attitude towards a mass disaster management would serve as valuable data in reforming dental curriculum and future training. Hence, the current study was done to determine the awareness and attitude towards mass disaster among house surgeons in a dental college and hospital in Chennai, India. This cross-sectional study was conducted with a 17-item pretested, self-administered questionnaire. The Cronbach’s alpha and split validity scores for the questionnaire were 0.8 and 0.9 respectively. The final sample size was 132, after adjusting for a non-response rate of 10 percent. 128 house surgeons participated in the study, (response rate – 95%). About 34.4% had good knowledge and 68.8% had a positive attitude towards mass disaster and its management. A positive Spearman’s correlation was found between knowledge and attitude scores. Although knowledge was not satisfactory, the house surgeons had a positive attitude towards the public health issue in question. About 72% were prepared to undergo proper training and 77% felt disaster training should be part of any internship program.

Keywords

mass disaster, disaster management, dental professionals, dental house surgeons