Evaluation of Final-Year Turkish Dental Students’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Self-Perceived Competency towards Preventive Dentistry

Table 1

Differences in all measures used in this study in terms of self-perceived educational/training needs and gender (n = 126).

Variables	Self-perceived training/educational needs (n)	Mean (SD)	p value	Gender (n)	Mean (SD)	p value
PPKS total score	Students reported not having educational/training needs (75)	57.93 ± 4.65	0.003	Female (79)	57.64 ± 5.18	0.016
	Students reported having educational/training needs (51)	54.96 ± 5.78		Male (47)	55.19 ± 5.25
Subscale 1—dental hygiene and clinical examination score	Students reported not having educational/training needs (75)	19.16 ± 2.27	0.172	Female (79)	19.51 ± 1.92	<0.001
	Students reported having educational/training needs (51)	18.60 ± 2.27		Male (47)	17.95 ± 2.50
Subscale 2—noncariogenic nutrition score	Students reported not having educational/training needs (75)	16.24 ± 1.80	0.043	Female (79)	16.30 ± 1.73	0.015
	Students reported having educational/training needs (51)	15.54 ± 1.87		Male (47)	15.38 ± 1.93
Subscale 3—caries risk management score	Students reported not having educational/training needs (75)	22.53 ± 2.80	0.006	Female (79)	21.82 ± 3.26	0.949
	Students reported having educational/training needs (51)	20.80 ± 3.41		Male (47)	21.85 ± 3.02
Attitudes towards preventive dentistry score	Students reported not having educational/training needs (75)	49.06 ± 5.09	0.005	Female (79)	48.43 ± 5.64	0.076
	Students reported having educational/training needs (51)	44.64 ± 9.29		Male (47)	45.34 ± 9.41
Self-perceived competency score	Students reported not having educational/training needs (75)	22.12 ± 3.89	<0.001	Female (79)	21.20 ± 4.11	0.461
	Students reported having educational/training needs (51)	19.19 ± 4.44		Male (47)	20.48 ± 4.74
Caries-preventive practice for children score	Students reported not having educational/training needs (75)	34.14 ± 4.88	0.056	Female (79)	34.11 ± 5.14	0.020
	Students reported having educational/training needs (51)	32.21 ± 5.68		Male (47)	32.10 ± 5.34
HU-DBI score	Students reported not having educational/training needs (75)	8.28 ± 1.98	0.003	Female (79)	8.15 ± 1.98	0.028
	Students reported having educational/training needs (51)	7.22 ± 1.76		Male (47)	7.36 ± 1.84

SD, standard deviation; PPKS, the Professional Preventive Knowledge Scale; HU-DBI, the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioral Inventory. Statistical evaluation by the Mann–Whitney U test. Significant p-values are marked in bold.