|
?:abstract
|
-
COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, and the Japanese government declared a state of emergency in the country soon after Dental treatments may pose a high risk of transmission and contraction of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, because many routine dental procedures can potentially transmit the virus through the use of aerosols In this study, we investigated the dental visit behavior of the general population during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, and explored the characteristics of those individuals who experienced marked anxiety regarding dental visits due to fear of nosocomial infection We analyzed web-based questionnaire survey data on the general population, with 1,885 participants (798 women) who responded between May 1 2020 and May 10 2020 We tabulated three items related to the basic characteristics and five items related to dental visits To examine the association between strong dental visit anxiety and its predictors, the prevalence ratio (PR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using Poisson regression After excluding the participants who had no plans to visit the dentist, 47 2% of the remaining 688 participants did not visit the dentist after the state of emergency was declared in Japan due to cancellation or change of appointment There were 454 respondents (24 1% of the total participants) who reported feeling marked anxiety regarding dental visits The results of the multivariate Poisson regression analysis showed that women had a significantly higher PR (PR=1 25, 95% CI=1 06;1 48) for marked anxiety than men Further, those who visited only when they experienced troubling symptoms, had a significantly higher PR (PR=1 36, 95% CI=1 15;1 61) for marked anxiety than those who visited a few times a year Our findings may be a valuable resource for predicting the future dental visit behavior of patients in the post-COVID-19 era
|
![[This page as RDF]](https://research.tib.eu/covid-19/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}