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OBJECTIVES

Discriminatory attitudes (DA) of dental surgeons towards PLWHIV may hinder their access to oral health care. The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with the discriminatory attitudes of dentists towards PLHIV in Côte d’Ivoire.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study conducted on a randomly selected sample of dentists in Abidjan. The data collected were: their socio-professional characteristics, their knowledge of HIV/AIDS, their perceptions and attitudes towards PLWHIV, and whether they had received continuing education or sensitization on HIV/AIDS. Discriminatory attitudes was a binary variable, defined from the combination of four criteria. Numbers and percentages were calculated for all variables. The risk of having DA was estimated by the odds ratio.

RESULTS

A total of 120 dentists were surveyed, 43.3% of whom were women and 39.2% from the private sector. They did not know the routes of transmission (29.2%) and the oral pathologies associated with HIV (62.5%). Their perceptions were dominated by the fear of being contaminated during care (69.2%). The frequency of DA was estimated at 69.2%. The main associated factors were: female gender; lack of knowledge of HIV/AIDS-related oral pathologies, lack of the risk of HIV transmission after blood exposure accident, and ignorance of the existence of a law on the protection of PLWHA; and fear of being contaminated.

CONCLUSION

This study reveals that the DA of dental surgeons with regard to PLWHIV in Côte d’Ivoire are mainly the result of poor knowledge of the disease.