Summary
Child abuse (CA) is considered to be a global public health problem, it manifests in all countries and in all social and religious groups. The role of dentists specialized in children involves a close and frequent relationship providing privileged circumstances for the detection of CA. The purpose of our study is to describe dentist attitudes and awareness concerning CA at nine health care centers in Concepción, Chile. A quantitative, descriptive and transversal exploratory analysis was performed by implementing a survey that collected demographic data, awareness, attitudes, suspicions and accusations of CA. The population size of the study consisted of 53 dentists. Chi square and Wilcoxon (Mann-Whitney U) were used as statistical tests. Largely, awareness was satisfactory. The variables of sex and awareness were significantly higher in women (p =0.0326). However, no differences were found among sex and attitudes. The information received by the dentists during their training, and the number of years of work experience did not correlate with awareness. The undergraduate training of the dentists did not provide any information on CA. This emphasizes the need to incorporate or reinforce the aspect of CA in undergraduate courses taught at the Faculties of Dentistry in Concepción, Chile.
KEY WORDS: child abuse, knowledge, attitude, dentists.
How to cite this article
FIERRO, M. C.; SALAZAR, S. E.; RUIZ, S. L.; LUENGO, M. L. & PÉREZ, F. A. Attitude towards child abuse according to the knowledge of dentists in Concepción, Chile. Int. J. Odontostomat., 6(1):105-110, 2012.
