The purpose of this study was to examine the knowledge and practice of infection control among dental hygiene students in an attempt to find out their awareness and practice of infection control and help improve infection control education. The subjects in this study were 283 dental hygiene students in two different colleges in Seoul. A self-administered survey was conducted from March 2 to 8, 2009, and the collected data were analyzed with a SPSS 12.0 program. The level of sgnificance was set at a=0.05. The major findings of the study were as follows:
1. The juniors found themselves healthier than the sophomores, and academic year made a statistically significant difference to that (p=0.0277).
2. As for infection control education experiences, the students had more experiences to receive that education with academic year (p<0.001), and the place where they received that education differed with academic year. Many of the sophomores received that education in other classes, and the juniors learned about that as one of separate courses. The gap between them was statistically significant (p<0.001), and academic year made a statistically significant difference to
the reason why they received that education (p<0.001).
3. The students felt a higher need for infection control education with academic year (p=0.0143).
4. 76.6 percent of the sophomores and 76 percent of the juniors were advised by their colleges or professors to be vaccinated against contagious diseases. The disease which they were most widely vaccinated against was hepatitis type B, followed by the influenza, the measles, varicella, tuberculosis and rubella.
5. Concerning what to do to prevent infection, the students attached the most importance to hand washing (p=0.0047), followed by wearing protective devices (p=0.0006), infection control education (p=0.0052), more powerful law of infection control (p=0.0099), vaccination against contagious diseases (p=0.0264), and raising awareness of the importance of infection control (p=0.0277). They took a statistically significantly different view of the importance of those things.
6. The students had more experiences to be injured by infectious wastes with academic year, and academic year made a broad statistically significant difference to that (p=0.0028). And they treated the wound in a significantly different manner according to academic year (p=0.0024).
7. Hand washing got more prevailing with academic year (p=0.0364).
In order to boost the knowledge and practice of dental hygiene students, more practical and authentic infection control education and the development of a variety of practice programs are required. Students should keep learning about infection control, and their infection control practice should be checked on a regular basis. In addition, their knowledge should be assessed to provide differentiated infection control education in consideration of academic year.
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