Attitude of dental students toward evidence‑based dentistry in Iran: A systematic review

Abstract

Background: Dentistry practice has become more complex and challenging in the recent years. The
clinical decision‑making process has experienced many problems due to changing socioeconomic
patterns, knowledgeable patients, rapid technological advances, and information explosion. The
present study reviewed the status of the attitude toward evidence‑based dentistry (EBD) among
dental students of Iran Universities. The effect of the educational intervention was also assessed.
Materials and Methods: This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred
Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta‑Analysis checklist. Search strategy was
developed by Medical Subject Headings terms and keywords surfing electronic available databases
including Medline/PubMed and Google Scholar and local databases such as Scientific Information
Database (SID) and Magiran. Two reviewers read the abstracts of all eligible papers and excluded
the duplicates. They extracted the information of the full‑text of the studies included in the review
and assessed the quality by Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal checklist.
Results: Ten studies including 8 cross‑sectional and 2 interventional studies met the criteria. The
assessment of the attitude of 937 dental students from a different region of the country toward EBD
showed moderate to acceptable status using 3 different tools. In regard to educational interventions,
2 studies were successful to improve their attitude.
Conclusion: Although the researchers presented good scores on the attitude questionnaires,
the quality of the study tools, the eligible criteria for recruiting the participants and the method of
evaluating the construct of attitude should be investigated in future studies.
Key Words: Attitude, dental students, evidence‑based dentistry, Iran