PMID- 34526331
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20210923
LR  - 20210923
IS  - 2044-6055 (Electronic)
IS  - 2044-6055 (Linking)
VI  - 11
IP  - 9
DP  - 2021 Sep 15
TI  - Attitudes, stressors and work outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic among 
      dental assistants in Germany: a cross-sectional study.
PG  - e045881
LID - 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045881 [doi]
LID - e045881
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed great challenges to medical 
      professionals worldwide. Dental assistants (DAs) are at exceptionally high risk 
      of infection with SARS-CoV-2 due to frequent and close patient contact and 
      involvement in various high-risk dental procedures. This study aimed to 
      investigate attitudes, stressors and work outcomes among DAs from all over 
      Germany at the peak of cases in spring 2020. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. 
      Descriptive analysis and logistic regression. SETTING: Dental, maxillofacial 
      surgery and orthodontic practices across Germany, April 2020. PARTICIPANTS: 
      Participants aged 18 years and above and currently working as DAs in Germany. 
      PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: A self-devised online questionnaire was 
      employed comprising questions on SARS-CoV-2-related attitudes, stressors and work 
      outcomes. Validated scales assessed symptoms of depression and anxiety. RESULTS: 
      Among 1481 participating DAs (median age 35 years, 98.4% female, 91.8% working in 
      dental practices), major stressors were uncertainty about the pandemic's temporal 
      scope (97.9% agreement, n=1450), uncertainty about one's financial situation 
      (87.8%, n=1301), uncertainty about how to act correctly (87.6%, n=1298) and 
      thoughts about a possible infection during work (83.8%, n=1241). Forty-two per 
      cent of DAs (n=622) felt sufficiently prepared for dealing with patients with 
      SARS-CoV-2. Only 17.5% (n=259) agreed that material for personal protection was 
      sufficiently available. Multivariable logistic regression analyses suggested that 
      working in a dental practice, compared with orthodontic and maxillofacial surgery 
      practices, was significantly associated with uncertainty about one's financial 
      situation (OR 2.13 (95% CI 1.33 to 3.44)) and with the reported availability of 
      personal protective equipment (PPE) (0.55 (0.36 to 0.84)). CONCLUSIONS: Training 
      about correct behaviour of DAs during future infectious disease outbreaks is 
      needed, especially for DAs working in dental practices. In the future, it will 
      also be necessary to strengthen supply chains to ensure that PPE is sufficiently 
      available in a timely manner.
CI  - (c) Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No 
      commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
FAU - Dreher, Annegret
AU  - Dreher A
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-5007-648X
AD  - Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Centre for Health 
      and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Duesseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany.
FAU - Pietrowsky, Reinhard
AU  - Pietrowsky R
AD  - Institute of Experimental Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, 
      University of Duesseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany.
FAU - Loerbroks, Adrian
AU  - Loerbroks A
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0003-2795-8684
AD  - Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Centre for Health 
      and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Duesseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany 
      adrian.loerbroks@uni-duesseldorf.de.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20210915
PL  - England
TA  - BMJ Open
JT  - BMJ open
JID - 101552874
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Attitude
MH  - *COVID-19
MH  - Cross-Sectional Studies
MH  - Dental Assistants
MH  - Female
MH  - Germany/epidemiology
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - *Pandemics
MH  - SARS-CoV-2
MH  - Surveys and Questionnaires
PMC - PMC8449838
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - COVID-19
OT  - mental health
OT  - occupational & industrial medicine
OT  - public health
COIS- Competing interests: None declared.
EDAT- 2021/09/17 06:00
MHDA- 2021/09/24 06:00
PMCR- 2021/09/15
CRDT- 2021/09/16 06:05
PHST- 2021/09/16 06:05 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/09/17 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/09/24 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2021/09/15 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - bmjopen-2020-045881 [pii]
AID - 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045881 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - BMJ Open. 2021 Sep 15;11(9):e045881. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045881.